Gustavus Broadband Update: Project Funding, Quest Underway

[Nathan Borson]

Project Funding 

Discussions with our broadband technical consultant and the Gustavus Community Network Board have led to the understanding that, as with the Gustavus Dock, multiple funding sources will be required to build our proposed $2.4 million broadband network. Please see the online version of this update for a table showing the funding sources.

Quest Underway

Gustavus residents met October 29 with Alaska Representative Beth Kerttula and staff from Senator Dennis Egan's office at the Gustavus Public Library. Our legislators were attentive and understanding, but they warned that, given the large reductions in the state's capital budget due to oil industry tax breaks, it will be very difficult to find the amount of funds we are requesting. Egan has discretion to fund only $500,000 in capital projects for his entire senate district, while requests total hundreds of millions of dollars.

Our broadband technical consultant, ICF International, has resumed drafting of our pre-application to the Economic Development Administration by sending surveys to selected Gustavus businesses. Survey results will be used to develop the "business case" for the Gustavus broadband project.

Next Steps

* Complete EDA pre-application and consult with EDA.

* Revise pre-application as necessary and re-submit. At this point we should have an idea of how big a match EDA will require.

* Submit capital request to State of Alaska.

* Apply for Rasmuson grant.

* When matching funds are secured, submit final EDA grant application.

The broadband project web site has been updated with this post. You
can always go there to see the latest news and status:
https://sites.google.com/a/corvid.info/gustavus-broadband-plan/

Nate

Nathan Borson, Co-Owner
Corvid Computing, Project Manager
City of Gustavus Broadband Plan
http://bit.ly/r48JAh
(907) 697-2810