A state grant window is prompting county officials to revisit its short-term approach to efforts aimed at expanding broadband access in the county.

“Our initial goal was to just do kind of an elongated process,” Commissioner Tricia Durbin said during this week’s work session, that “evaluated the whole county.”

But the state Broadband Development Authority last month opened a $200 million grant round as part of the Broadband Infrastructure Program that’s open to businesses, non-profits, local governments as well as economic development organizations.

It’s specifically focused on areas, according to a statement from the Authority, that are “unserved or underserved.”

Funding will be awarded for “line extension and development projects, as well as large-scale regional infrastructure projects,” per the Authority, and the grant window will close on July 10.

Durbin said that the county’s effort shifted to reaching out “to a number of third-party providers (and) asked if they were interested in providing proposals to the county.”

The program requires a 25 percent match but the county is holding much of its American Rescue Plan allocation for such uses.

“(It) sounds like there is some level of interest with those third-party providers,” she said.

Durbin previously said that there were six shovel-ready projects in the county that providers had engineered.

“Now there might be an opportunity for them to change a little of the size and scope of the project,” she said, or the providers “may apply on their own which we would be thrilled with.”

Durbin added that the county will “see the level of interest that is there and go from there.”

THOMPSON CALLS FOR ADDED OUTREACH

Part of the broadband challenge that county officials face is being able to prove that the need here is greater than other areas.

One of the key ways to do that has been individual and collective challenges to the Federal Communication Commission’s broadband service maps.

“I heard from many constituents who wanted to participate in the public challenge process to the FCC’s pre-production maps, but were unable to do so given the quick turnaround time and little advance notice,” Congressman Glenn Thompson said in a recent newsletter. “To address this issue, I sent a letter to the FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel to strength state and local government outreach.

“It is imperative that the FCC listen to the needs of rural stakeholders to ensure that unserved and underserved locations in PA-15 are covered, and that this unprecedented amount of funding is not wasted or misused.”