After years of frustration, much of Macon County may soon have access to high-speed internet, and the expansion could continue thanks to a $15 million grant from the state. HB387 passed the Senate on Tuesday, and bill co-sponsor Rep. Kevin Corbin said he expects the governor to sign it. There is no...
After years of frustration, much of Macon County may soon have access to high-speed internet, and the expansion could continue thanks to a $15 million grant from the state.
HB387 passed the Senate on Tuesday, and bill co-sponsor Rep. Kevin Corbin said he expects the governor to sign it. There is no word yet on which counties will get the grant funding, which is awarded to internet providers that contribute matching funds.
Last year, the Growing Rural Economies with Access to Technology program provided $10 million in matching grants that went to 19 rural counties, including $433,500 to Macon.
Morris Broadband won that contract with a match of $233,450 and recently announced plans to make broadband service available to 221 homes and five businesses in Macon.
In September, Little T Broadband, a 501C3 nonprofit, secured $178,000 in funding from the Macon County Board of Commissioners to help build broadband infrastructure to serve residents and businesses in Otto and Scaly Mountain.
“I’ve come to realize there’s not a silver bullet, there’s not one thing that’s going to fix rural broadband,” Corbin said. “It’s a multi-faceted approach.”
Despite the recent progress, bringing broadband to rural areas like Macon County is a work in progress.
“We continue to push,” Corbin said. “We had a leadership meeting two weeks ago, and I proposed to the [House] speaker about increasing that funding to another $25 million.”
The additional funding would come from the state’s $900 million budget surplus.
With the state’s budget still in limbo after Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto, the General Assembly has been passing “mini budgets” to fund important programs.
“The governor is signing these mini budgets,” Corbin said. “We’re passing things around the veto.”
Also this week, the General Assembly passed minibudgets to provide $8 billion to the N.C. Department of Transportation and $2 billion to community colleges.
“These are things we all agree on, and the governor agrees, need to be done,” Corbin said.
The minibudget will allow NCDOT resume maintenance work that was recently suspended due to lack of funding.
“In our area, if you look at the roadsides, they haven’t been mowed, maintenance hasn’t been done,” Corbin said. “That’s done with private contractors. This will get them back to work.”