Broadband grants bring more funds to Lee County

More Broadband Work

"The awards are a direct result of the broadband development process, investment by Lee County, and great partnerships that led to the development of the ITQ areas. The ITQ areas then opened the door to the applications and awards."”

Mike Norris, Executive Director SEIRPC

LEE COUNTY – The work to build out broadband service in rural Lee County got another chunk of good news Tuesday.
According to a release from the Iowa Department of Management, Lee County stands to see another substantial investment in broadband infrastructure with close to $20 million in grants awarded to Mediacom and Mediapolis Telephone Co. for projects in northeast Lee County and south Lee County for projects totaling close to $28 million.
The awards were part of a $148 million Empower Rural Iowa Broadband Grant program through the former Iowa Office of the Chief Information Officer, now the Department of Management under Gov. Reynolds' state restructuring this year.
This round of grant funds will be used to incentivize broadband infrastructure build out in the newly established Broadband Intervention Zones (BIZ). Through feedback from 55 public meetings in Iowa communities, 96 BIZ zones were created across the state. These are areas deemed to be in the most need for broadband infrastructure expansion.
Funding for this branch of broadband work, or a Notice of Funding Opportunity, is the eighth won and is (NOFO) made possible through the U.S. Department of Treasury’s Capital Projects Fund.
According to Mike Norris, Executive Director of Southeast Iowa Regional Planning and administrator of Southeast Regional and Economic Port Authority, the funds could be used to serve at least 1,500 addresses in the county.
The county under the leadership of Norris, Lee County Economic Development Group, SIREPA, and the Lee County Board of Supervisors, worked to get ITQs, or Intent to Qualify applications, developed for the Broadband Intervention Zones established with the state in anticipation of state and federal broadband grants. That work helped set the foundation for the grants, Norris said.
“In total, Lee County received approximately 13% of the $148 million awarded – a very large proportion for one county,” Norris said.
“The awards are a direct result of the countywide broadband development process, investment by Lee County, and great partnerships that led to the development of the Broadband Intervention Zones. The Zones then opened the door to the applications and awards.”
The Mediacom award could serve approximately 700 addresses in southern Lee County. Mediacom requested $29 million for their multi-county project to serve a total of 4,466 addresses, but the company was awarded $19.1 million, which could potentially affect the project going forward.
Under the Mediapolis Telephone project, about 850 addresses in an area encompassing the rural areas north of Fort Madison to Hwy 16 could be served.
Norris said the projects will fit nicely with the work Danville Telecom and SIREPA have done with Lee County ARPA funds and private investment from Danville Telecom to establish a redundant fiber transmission backbone loop in the south part of the county.
“The Danville/SIREPA project will add the redundant fiber transmission which both projects can use to backhaul data and keep services going if a transmission fiber is cut, or to add capacity,” Norris said.
That project will also serve an additional 120 addresses in and around Wever. All three projects plan to bring the number of new unserved and underserved addresses in the county to about 1,670 if all the projects come to fruition.
Norris said the new projects, combined with the work of Danville Telecom and SIREPA, will address almost 66% of the underserved addresses in Lee County over the next two years.
The Lee County Board of Supervisors voted to put $1.9 million in ARPA funds into the Danville Telecom project.