News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Twin Lakes is hoping to earn grant funding from Tennessee’s Emergency Broadband fund.
CEO Jonathan West said that they’re applying for a portion of the $400 million pot to expand broadband to coverage to homes in Putnam County.
“There are so many things that you can only do online,” West said. “And when you don’t have access to quality broadband at home, it just means you can’t do them at home. It certainly puts people at a disadvantage.”
West said that the project will cost about $17 million, with up to 70 percent that could be covered by the funding. He said that there are currently some 2,400 homes in the county without access to good broadband.
West said that to help bolster their application, they are looking for public input on how the broadband expansion will help. He said that the responses from a four to five-question survey for support will be sent to the state when it reviews Twin Lakes’ application.
“The state wants to know is there really a demand here,” West said. “We can show them that broadband’s not available, but the other side to that is do the people even want it? So these signatures of support online absolutely help to demonstrate the case to the state that these rural residents of Putnam County, and in some cases not so rural residents of Putnam County, need and want access to broadband. So it helps the scoring system, but it also helps tell the story to the state.”
West said that they are hoping to hear back from the state about getting the grant in late summer. He said that once the grant comes in they will be able to get to work immediately.
West said that the timeline goal to have the whole project completed is 24 months.
