Broadband efforts back on waiting list

SANDPOINT — Bonner and Boundary county’s rural communities are back on the waiting list for broadband service meant to provide jobs and diversify the area’s economy.

Idaho’s two northern counties were passed over for a $37 million federal stimulus grant that would have paid for the fiber optics to make a rural broadband network here a reality.

Karl Dye, executive director of the Bonner County Economic Development Corporation, announced Thursday that the group’s efforts in acquiring stimulus money for the project were denied.

“We were told that we would be considered under a final funding round,” Dye said. “But, found out last week that that was no longer a possibility.”

The group began working on the proposal for the stimulus dollars almost two years ago.

Rep. Walt Minnick, as well as U.S. Senators Mike Crapo and Jim Risch were among proponents of the project pushing for the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture and the Dept. of Commerce to take a hard look at the proposal.

Despite the widespread support, and the diversity of the benefactors that included school districts, rural healthcare service providers, libraries and border security, the proposal was overlooked.

Geoff Daily, an industry pundit who was the keynote speaker via video conference at the BCEDC’s annual meeting, Thursday, said the federal government has shown an inability to fund robust projects like the Bonner, Boundary broadband network.

The federal government tends to shell money to previously-funded work, or agencies it is familiar with, Daily said.

According to the proposal, the grant would have helped fund a broadband network that would have provided service to a large portion of the region, with revenues used to continue to expand the service area.

Although the project will not be funded, a lot of groundwork has been laid for a smaller, less-costly initiative, Dye said.

The BCEDC will use the information gathered for the two-county proposal, in efforts to get broadband to Bonner County.

“We have the capacity and capability to leverage this network into more, better paying jobs in both the short and long term for our kids and grandkids,” Dye said. “The Bonner County Economic Development Corporation is committed to making a local fiber-to-the-home network a reality.”