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Betsy Bradley serves on the Stockton Springs Select Board. Brandy Bridges serves on the Prospect Select Board. Kevin Kelley is chair of the Winterport Town Council. Vaughn Littlefield is chair of the Frankfort Select Board.
Maine has acted decisively to confront a defining challenge of the 21st century: Too many rural communities have been left behind in the digital age. Without sufficient population density to attract private internet service providers, our towns have been largely without high-speed internet service, or have been limited to using outdated, unreliable connections using last century’s infrastructure. Thankfully, through significant federal investments in the American Rescue Plan Act and the bipartisan infrastructure law, funding is available to leverage private investment and close the digital divide. With the creation of the Maine Connectivity Authority, the Legislature and Gov. Janet Mills have set ambitious goals to ensure everyone in Maine can have access to a high-speed internet connection.
Recognizing this critical opportunity, our four towns banded together to form a regional coalition — the 1A Waldo County Broadband Coalition. For more than two years, a volunteer committee, with the support of our town governments, has met with residents, business owners and anchor institutions to assess our broadband needs. The stories have been clear — from the rural gas station where credit card transactions at gas pumps regularly fail because of poor connectivity, to the retiree who climbs onto a garage roof after every snow to clear a satellite dish in order to maintain contact with loved ones, to the student who commutes more than two hours daily to attend classes that could otherwise be streamed online — our communities need better connectivity.
The Maine Connectivity Authority is reaching a critical turning point in its mission to close the digital divide. In the coming months, virtually all of the Capital Projects Funds, provided through the American Rescue Plan, will be allocated. This initial funding is designed to be flexible, and the Maine Connectivity Authority has already deployed much of it to achieve admirable results. For example, through its Get Ready initiative, the Maine Connectivity Authority has supported regional coalitions like ours in designing effective public-private partnerships to leverage additional public and private funds.
The next tranche of funding, provided through the bipartisan infrastructure law, is more prescriptive. With current funding, the Maine Connectivity Authority can award projects like ours, which are characterized by regional collaboration, highly engaged communities, and the opportunity to leverage significant private investment to achieve universal service, even in the portions of our towns that may technically have access to outdated, unreliable connections or service from unaffordable providers.
With the next funds, the Maine Connectivity Authority will be required to invest funding first in communities where no service exists, and will have limited ability to support communities that have identified an optimal private partner, as we have.
Our communities have stepped up to develop a community-driven broadband project that will serve every location in our towns. We rigorously reviewed multiple potential private internet service providers, selecting one with deep roots in our county and a clear commitment to investing in rural communities. Over the past year, at packed town meetings and in one-on-one conversations, we’ve joined with our neighbors to commit precious town funds from a variety of sources — with unanimous support in every instance. We hope the Maine Connectivity Authority will strategically allocate funds to ensure our communities in the middle are not left behind during this critical period of investment.
