Serving the Towns of Wawarsing, Crawford, Mamakating, Rochester and Shawangunk, and everything in between
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Opinion
Rural Broadband For Greenfield Park

In order to further address the need for broadband infrastructure in the unserved areas of the Town of Wawarsing, we have made an application for a grant with the United States Department of Agriculture. The grant is called the Community Connect grant.

Rural Broadband Company, Inc., (www.urbroadband.com), which is known in the area as a company that has been seeking funds for broadband expansion, took on the task of organizing the application. Gary M. Horowitz, who is a commissioner and co-chairman of the Ellenville Fire District, served as a project liaison and community advocate.�

Commissioner Horowitz convinced the Board of the Ellenville Fire District to make a firm commitment to the application by providing a cash match letter that is needed for it.�

Our hope is that this public/private effort to provide broadband for all of the residents of the town is successful. This grant is specifically designed to provide vital infrastructure and broadband funding for unserved areas, like the Greenfield Park Census Designated Place (CDP) area. As a further requirement of the grant, two community centers will receive additional free broadband for a period of two years. The fire station in Greenfield Park, and also the town's one-room schoolhouse were chosen by us because they fit the description in the grant, and also because no other facilities fit.�

The grant opportunity, if awarded, could provide a turning point in the town's longstanding effort to make broadband available everywhere. The application was made better, we believe, because we made our application so that, upon an award, we could use new white space technology for the infrastructure. This new FCC-created and approved technology infrastructure is what a lot of folk in town call "wi-fi." It's true that wi-fi is a version of white space technology, but the technology itself goes a lot farther when applied in such rural and unserved areas as Greenfield Park.

If awarded, the grant would allow our fire station and the town's one-room schoolhouse to also become "wi-fi" centers, would provide more broadband speed to us, and also would allow for businesses and residents in the area to have broadband — in many if not most cases for the first time.

The grant opportunity, thus, provides a leadership incentive to adopt new technologies, like white space, and apply it to unserved areas of our town that have long been forgotten by traditional broadband infrastructure considerations. In keeping with its carrier-neutral focus, RBC's efforts to bring expanded infrastructure to such forgotten areas have, as a goal, creating the right economic incentives that will allow broadband providers to succeed in these areas.

In conclusion, an award on this grant application could provide just the solution that our town has labored to find for many years now. The Ellenville Fire District has a keen interest in making sure that all of the residents of the town have access to technology that can not only save lives, but also provide for greater benefits for healthcare and for the quality of life for all residents. With a new technology infrastructure as a start, we can make sure that those who have broadband will now be able to communicate with their neighbors who do not yet have it.

Wish us luck!

For letters in support of the application, please email [email protected]. In the alternative, letters of support may be sent directly to USDA at: Scott Steiner, Chief, Engineering Branch, Broadband Division, Rural Development, Rural Utilities Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, 1400 Independence Ave., S.W., Washington, D.C. 20250, or email:�[email protected]



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