First round of grant money awarded for high-speed internet

Map of locations to be served by recent grants.

portal.ct.gov/deep

First round of grant money awarded for high-speed internet

Several towns in the Northwest Corner are poised to receive a boost to their broadband infrastructure due to a recent set of grants administered by the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP).

In a joint press release on Oct. 11, Governor Ned Lamont (D) and DEEP Commissioner Katie Dykes announced that $28 million in funds will be allocated to 88 municipalities under the first round of the state’s ConneCTed Communities Grant Program.

Because award money will be distributed to internet service providers (ISPs) and not the towns themselves, towns had to partner with providers to be eligible for the grants. Locations in Norfolk, Salisbury and Falls Village are set to benefit from Comcast Communications’ awarded funds, while Frontier Communications was granted $954,909 to install fiber optic cable to 148 locations in Sharon, with some abutting the Cornwall town line.

“The expansion of broadband infrastructure will make Connecticut’s towns and cities stronger, more resilient, and better positioned to engage in today’s increasingly digitized world,” Governor Lamont stated in the press release.

Sharon

While Jill Drew, co-chair of the Sharon Connect Task Force (SCTF), was pleased to see money allocated towards improving her town’s high-speed internet, she was surprised that Sharon’s application was denied to reimburse most of the $1.6 million the town spent on its own project to bring broadband to unserved residents.

“We are disappointed that the state chose to put off the decision of whether to reimburse the town,” Drew said in a statement.

Of the $40.8 million in the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) Capital Project Fund, $12.8 million remains, which DEEP will administer for a second round of grants on a first come, first serve basis. Drew maintained that Sharon will quickly resubmit.

After hearing stories about Sharon residents suffering from lacking high-speed internet, such as a school teacher teaching zoom classes during the pandemic from a parked car outside J.P. Gifford in Sharon, the SCTF dedicated itself to bringing “universal access to people who lived in Sharon who otherwise it would make no business sense for a company to pay to connect them.”

“That’s why we need government funding,” Drew added.

In 2023, Sharon partnered with Comcast to “provide high-speed internet connections to 272 homes along 28.5 miles of Sharon roads that had previously not had broadband access,” according to the SCTF. By the time the ConneCTed Communities grants applications were open, the project was largely complete, which is why Sharon’s application was denied in the first round, Drew explained. While there are no guarantees, she said, she hopes for better results in the second round.

As for Frontier’s fiber optic project, she is excited about the prospect of competition between providers in town, which will bring better service, she said. On the other hand, though, she hopes that Frontier’s award doesn’t “box out the town receiving funding for its own successful project getting everybody connected.”

“The Town of Sharon welcomes competition so our residents can decide which internet provider has the best service at the best price,” said Casey Flanagan, Sharon’s First Selectman, though he also maintained he is hopeful the new application for reimbursement will be accepted.

Drew noted that Frontier owns all the copper wire landlines in the state, and she’s wary of the ISP using the project to try and edge out telephone landlines in favor of fiber optic cable.

“Frontier will need to keep its copper wire for rural residents,” said Drew, citing the need for alternative communications measures in households without reliable cellular service.

Kent

Other town leaders found themselves looking at these grants from the sidelines. Lynn Worthington, selectman and chair of the Kent Broadband and Mobile Communication Working Group, pointed out that the funding opportunities have “rules [that] make it difficult for municipalities to apply.”

In Kent’s case, Spectrum and Frontier have been unresponsive, so the town has been ineligible to apply for the ConneCTed Communities grants. Worthington said that Spectrum has always been difficult to reach, as has Frontier since a merger was announced with Verizon.

Another funding pathway, called the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program, has been held up during a data review by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration.

“Basically, nothing has happened with BEAD since July,” remarked Worthington.

To engage the public, the Kent group will focus its efforts on outreach strategies to educate residents on the costs of being left behind. “Fiber optic is the future,” Worthington said. “The existing service isn’t going to be adequate in four to five years.”

Overall, Worthington believes that discourse between towns and across the state is paramount to a better connected future: “We could all learn from each other,” she said.

Latest News

East Canaan's CowPots to face the 'Sharks'

Amanda Freund of East Canaan will appear on the television show "Shark Tank" on April 4 to pitch CowPots.

Photo by Ruth Epstein

CANAAN — Fans of the television show “Shark Tank,” stay tuned. On Friday, April 4, Amanda Freund of East Canaan will be facing the panel, imploring members to invest in her unique product: cow poop.

Freund and her father Matthew Freund produce and market CowPots, which are made from the abundance of manure found on their dairy farm. Matthew Freund, realizing cows were producing more manure — 100 pounds per cow per day — than was needed for fertilizing fields for crops, came up with the concept of the pots. Years of trial-and-error experimentation finally resulted in success. In 2006 he began selling the biodegradable pots using 100% composted manure to local stores. Now the pots can be found in outlets across the country, as well as internationally.

Keep ReadingShow less
Hotchkiss lacrosse ices Kingswood Oxford 19-0

LAKEVILLE — The Hotchkiss School opened the girls varsity lacrosse season with a big win in the snow against Kingswood Oxford School.

The Bearcats won 19-0 in a decisive performance March 26. Twelve different players scored for Hotchkiss, led by Coco Sheronas with four goals.

Keep ReadingShow less
HVRHS releases second quarter honor roll

FALLS VILLAGE — Principal Ian Strever announces the second quarter marking period Honor Roll at Housatonic Valley Regional High School for the 2024-2025 school year.

Highest Honor Roll

Grade 9: Parker Beach (Cornwall), Mia Belter (Salisbury), Lucas Bryant (Cornwall), Addison Green (Kent), Eliana Lang (Salisbury), Alison McCarron (Kent), Katherine Money (Kent), Mira Norbet (Sharon), Abigail Perotti (North Canaan), Karmela Quinion (North Canaan), Owen Schnepf (Wassaic), Federico Vargas Tobon (Salisbury), Emery Wisell (Kent).

Keep ReadingShow less
Thomas Ditto

ANCRAMDALE — Thomas Ditto of Ancramdale, born Thomas David DeWitt Aug. 11, 1944 in New York City changing his surname to Ditto at marriage, passed peacefully on Pi Day, March 14, 2025. He was a husband, father, artist, scientist, Shakespeare scholar, visionary, inventor, actor, mime, filmmaker, clown, teacher, lecturer, colleague, and friend. Recipient of numerous grants, awards and honors in both the arts and sciences, a Guggenheim and NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts fellow, he was a creative genius beyond his time. In addition to authoring scores of papers, he held several patents and invented the first motion capture system and the Ditto-scope, a radically new kind of telescope. He was a pioneer in computer generated video, film, and performance.

When not hard at work, he was always there to help when needed and he knew how to bring smiles to faces. He loved his family and pets and was supportive of his wife’s cat rescue work.

Keep ReadingShow less