First round of grant money awarded for high-speed internet

Map of locations to be served by recent grants.
portal.ct.gov/deep
Map of locations to be served by recent grants.
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.
The entrance to Torrington Transfer Station.
TORRINGTON — Municipalities holding out for a public solid waste solution in the Northwest Corner have new hope.
An amendment to House Bill No. 7287, known as the Implementor Bill, signed by Governor Ned Lamont, has put the $3.25 million sale of the Torrington Transfer Station to USA Waste & Recycling on hold.
The amendment was added after the formation of the Northwest Resource Recovery Authority in Torrington in late May. The text added to the bill reads, “any permit or license relating to the Torrington Transfer Station shall be deemed transferred to the Northwest Resource Recovery Authority, or its designee, and shall continue in full force and effect.”
The change halted the sale to USA, which was unanimously accepted by MIRA Dissolution Authority at its May 14 board meeting, and reopened negotiations with municipal leaders. Torrington is one of two transfer stations in Connecticut, the other being Essex, that are still operated by MIRA-DA. Combined, more than 20 towns currently utilize these facilities.
Members of the Northwest Hills Council of Governments have been working to establish a public option for solid waste management for more than a year. In February 2025, MIRA-DA entered into a term sheet for a regional waste authority to take over the Torrington Transfer Station to be used as a central hub for regional hauling. Those plans were nixed after MIRA-DA’s May decision to privately sell the facility, until the amendment to HB 7287.
The Implementor Bill is “an act concerning the state budget for the biennium ending June 30, 2027,” according to the state website. It was signed by Lamont in early June.
MIRA-DA reviewed the situation at its board meeting Wednesday, June 18. Conversation mostly took place in executive session, but several speakers participated in public comment.
Supporting a public option, Torrington Mayor Elinor Carbone said, “I’m advocating for the local taxpayers for return on the investment that they’ve made over the years through tipping fees.” She continued, “The best way to return that investment is to strongly consider that public option that has been submitted on behalf of the NRRA.”
Selectmen in Cornwall, Falls Village, Goshen, Norfolk, North Canaan, Salisbury and Sharon have all expressed interest in pursuing a public option. Each of these towns continue to haul to Torrington utilizing existing state service agreements, which are due to expire in 2027.
Ed Spinella, attorney representing USA, characterized the Implementor Bill text change as a “rat amendment” that does not affect USA’s proposal. He said he intends to enforce MIRA-DA’s previous acceptance of the sale.
“It’s an enforceable vote and I guarantee you I’m going to make it enforceable,” said Spinella. “We were going to buy the facility regardless of whether or not it had a permit.”
He urged MIRA-DA to produce the necessary paperwork to move forward with the sale.
“I want to sign the documents so we can finish this deal,” said Spinella. “Are you going to be defined by cowering to a rat implementor, rat amendment of the Implementor Bill?”
Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection Commissioner Katie Dykes entered a letter into the record. In March, Dykes had signed off on the term sheet to convey the Torrington Transfer Station to the regional waste authority. Her signature, she explained, verified that MIRA-DA had identified an alternative facility manager, but did not authorize a private sale.
Following a lengthy executive session June 18 that continued the next day, MIRA-DA recessed without taking action. The meeting was scheduled to continue Monday, June 23, at noon.
In August of 1781, after spending thirty years as an enslaved woman in the household of Colonel John Ashley in Sheffield, Massachusetts, Elizabeth Freeman, also known as Mumbet, was the first enslaved person to sue for her freedom in court. At the time of her trial there were 5,000 enslaved people in the state. MumBet’s legal victory set a precedent for the abolition of slavery in Massachusetts in 1790, the first in the nation. She took the name Elizabeth Freeman.
Local playwrights Lonnie Carter and Linda Rossi will tell her story in a staged reading of “1781” to celebrate Juneteenth, ay 7 p.m. at The Center on Main in Falls Village, Connecticut.Singer Wanda Houston will play MumBet, joined by actors Chantell McCulloch, Tarik Shah, Kim Canning, Sherie Berk, Howard Platt, Gloria Parker and Ruby Cameron Miller. Musical composer Donald Sosin added, “MumBet is an American hero whose story deserves to be known much more widely.”
Houston has shared the stage with stars ranging from Barbra Streisand to Motown great Mary Wells. “I have had the honor of portraying Elizabeth Freeman for three years in “Meet Elizabeth Freeman” by Teresa Miller. Our first reading of “1781” is in celebration of Juneteenth, which is wonderfully symbolic and poignant.” Juneteenth celebrates the end of slavery. Two years after President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, word of their freedom finally reached slaves in Texas on June 19, 1865.
Tombstone of Elizabeth Freeman in the “Sedgewick Pie” family burial ground in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. Lonnie carter
MumBet, born in 1742 to African enslaved parents, was purchased at age six months by Colonel John Ashley of Sheffield, Massachusetts, for whom she worked until her thirties. Ashley helped write the 1773 Sheffield Declaration which stated, “Mankind in a state of nature are equal, free, and independent of each other, and have a right to the undisturbed enjoyment of their lives, their liberty and property.” Rumor has it that MumBet overheard a reading of the document. After a traumatic household experience, MumBet left the Ashley home in Bartholomew’s Cobble, walked four miles to Sheffield, and asked attorney and abolitionist Theodore Sedgwick to help her gain her freedom.
Houston shared, “I live in Sheffield near where she was enslaved, in a house she would have passed on her walk from Ashley Falls to Sheffield. I am humbled by the fortitude and inner strength it must have taken for this woman to defy norms and take a stand for her own freedom.We Americans must still stand and fight for our rights to live free.”
Elizabeth Freeman spent her years as a free woman working for wages in the Sedgewick household, saving money to buy her own home in Stockbridge, where she was a midwife and healer. She died in 1829 and is buried in “Sedgewick Pie,” the family burial plot in Stockbridge. One of her great-grandchildren, W.E.B. DuBois, born in Great Barrington, was the first African American to earn a Ph.D. from Harvard. DuBois founded the NAACP.
Her tombstone reads: “She was born a slave and remained a slave for nearly thirty years. She could neither read nor write yet in her own sphere she had no superior or equal. She neither wasted time nor property. She never violated a trust nor failed to perform a duty. In every situation of domestic trial, she was the most efficient helper, and the tenderest friend. Good mother, farewell.”
The performance of “1781” will take place Thursday, June 19 at 7 p.m. at The Center on Main (103 Main St., Falls Village).Admission is free, donations gratefully accepted.
The new mural painted by students at Saint John Paul The Great Academy in Torrington, Connecticut.
Thanks to a unique collaboration between The Nutmeg Fudge Company, local artist Gerald Incandela, and Saint John Paul The Great Academy in Torrington, Connecticut a mural — designed and painted entirely by students — now graces the interior of the fudge company.
The Nutmeg Fudge Company owner Kristy Barto was looking to brighten her party space with a mural that celebrated both old and new Torrington. She worked with school board member Susan Cook and Incandela to reach out to the Academy’s art teacher, Rachael Martinelli.
“When Susan and Gerald brought this to me, I immediately saw it as a chance for my students to make something meaningful and lasting,” said Martinelli. “It wasn’t just about painting a wall, it was about teaching kids to serve their community through their art.”
Martinelli introduced the project as an after-school club for grades four through eight. “I wanted students who were truly committed,” she explained. Interest was so high that she had to divide participants into rotating grade-level groups, with occasional full-team days for collaboration. The mural became a long-term endeavor, stretching across a school year and a half.
The painting was created on canvas, a nearly 4’ x 27’ roll, donated by Incandela. The paint came courtesy of school principal Ed Goad. With materials secured, the students dove into research, studying maps, landmarks, and city history to inform their designs. “They worked to capture the spirit of Torrington,” Martinelli said. “But also, to match the whimsy of a candy shop.”
The result is a mural that features a playful “candyland” version of the city, where important buildings and landmarks are sized according to their importance to both the client and the community. “They created this hierarchy of bubbles and buildings, this joyful visual story,” Martinelli said. “It’s full of life.”
Beyond art skills, Martinelli witnessed her students develop qualities often harder to teach: teamwork, communication, resilience. “They learned to scale up sketches, mix large batches of paint for consistency, and adapt their work when it overlapped with someone else’s. They really respected each other’s contributions.”
The project also reflected the Academy’s Catholic STREAM (Science, Technology, Religion, Engineering, Arts, and Math) approach to education. “This was STREAM in action,” Martinelli explained. “They used technology to scale and transfer designs, applied math for proportions and spacing, and worked collaboratively to problem-solve. But they also lived their faith — through service, solidarity, and joy.”
Martinelli believes the mural speaks as much to the process as it does to the final product. “Some of the kids who worked on it have already graduated, but they’re coming back for the unveiling. That says something.”
The unveiling of the mural will take place at The Nutmeg Fudge Company on June 11, from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m., where families, friends, and community members are invited to celebrate the students’ achievement.
Asked what stood out most from the experience, Martinelli said, “For me, the most rewarding part was watching a diverse group of kids work together — different grades, different friend groups — all collaborating with respect, flexibility, and positivity. They created something beautiful, together.”