On Wednesday, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced the approval of $41 million in grants for 10 broadband projects in 20 localities lacking service from providers.
Of that portion, Spotsylvania County will receive $10.3 million to extend broadband service primarily in two large rural districts, Livingston and Berkeley.
The grant funding “brings us one step closer to becoming the first state in the nation to reach statewide universal broadband coverage,” Youngkin said in a statement. “In our increasingly digital world, having access to high-speed broadband isn’t a luxury; it’s a prerequisite to participate in daily life.”
The grants come through the Department of Housing and Community Development. The projects were chosen through a competitive process based on the “need and benefit for the community, applicant readiness and capacity, and the cost and leverage of the proposed project,” according to the governor’s office statement.
There were 25 applications for the grants, seeking more than $170 million.
Spotsylvania garnered the second highest grant award, behind only the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission's $12.2 million for various jurisdictions in the Charlottesville area.
Spotsylvania Board of Supervisors member Kevin Marshall, who represents the Berkeley District, has been pushing for expansion and improvement of rural internet connections for years and is glad to see the county get the funds to do it.
“After years of hard work broadband is finally coming to the Berkeley district and the rest of rural Spotsylvania, this is great for all our citizens but especially the kids,” Marshall said in an email. “Our children will benefit greatly having the ability to connect to broadband to complete schoolwork and take virtual classes really levels the playing field for our kids.”
He said the broadband expansion also will help “small rural businesses that we have here in the county. I am extremely happy and proud of all of the staff that worked with us to bring this to fruition.”
The Spotsylvania Board of Supervisors approved the grant request in October.
According to that request, at the Oct. 10 meeting, the county had set aside $8.85 million as its matching contribution for the broadband projects.
County Administrator Ed Petrovitch thanked the department of housing and said the grant award “will simultaneously further DHCD’s goal of creating strong, competitive communities throughout the Commonwealth by preparing them to build, utilize and capitalize on a fiber infrastructure, while also significantly advancing the county’s goal of extending affordable broadband internet service access to all of its residents.”
According to the county, it will work with its partner Port80 Internet Services on projects “to deploy a broadband system that will offer internet service to those areas that are currently unserved and underserved in the primarily rural districts of Berkeley and Livingston.”
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