Lt. Governor Suzanne Crouch along with the Indiana Office of Community and Rural Affairs and the director of broadband opportunities announced that five rural Indiana communities will receive funding as a part of the Broadband Readiness Planning Grant.
“Governor Holcomb and I believe that rural Indiana is our next great economic development frontier and it is important we are not leaving rural Indiana and the Hoosiers that call it home behind,” Crouch said. “This grant will help bring high-speed, reliable and affordable Internet to the entire state.”
Crouch said that each community will receive a minimum of $50,000 as a part of the Community Development Block Grant program to develop a plan that will educate, create and identify ways to improve broadband speeds in their area.
The five recipients receiving funding are:
- Dale, Ind.
- English, Ind.; – in partnership with Marengo, Ind. and Milltown, Ind.;
- Greene County – including Bloomfield, Ind., Jasonville, Ind., Switz City, Ind. Worthington, Ind. and Smith Township;
- Marshall County – including Bremen, Ind., Culver, Ind. and La Paz, Ind.; and
- Starke County – including Hamlet, Ind., Knox, Ind. and North Judson.
“These communities provided applications that were evaluated on established federal criteria along with supplied data on location, geography, density, unserved/underserved areas and previous efforts,” said Jodi Golden, Executive Director of OCRA.
Golden said that the communities will be a part of a pilot program that will educate and help shape how broadband can be established throughout the entire state.
“After successfully working with the Nashville community on establishing their broadband, I am ready to assist these selected areas with understanding their challenges on getting Internet access,” said Scott Rudd, Director of Broadband Opportunities.
The Purdue Center for Regional Development will be assisting the pilot communities, and will continue to help the state get Hoosiers out of Internet darkness. The funding for the Community Development Block Grant program comes from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which is administered by OCRA.
Source: Office of Lt. Governor Suzanne Crouch