Major efforts to connect the rural parts of Knox County to high-speed Internet were approved by the County Board Wednesday night.
Board members approved over $1.8 million in American Rescue Plan Act grants to three entities to work as matching contributions for state funds for broadband expansion.
A contingent grant of $1,115,000 was approved for Frontier, which is seeking a Connect Illinois grant to run fiber for 585 locations in Ceder, Indian Point, and Chestnut townships. The money from the county would be a matching portion of an over $10 million grant.
Another contingent grant is for the Oneida Telephone Exchange to expand fiber in Rio and Henderson Townships, affecting 226 locations. That grant is for $500,000 and would be used to match a Connect IL grant for about $4 million.
The final grant for Nextlink Internet is for $217,000 and would assist the company’s investment of $620,000 to expand wireless capabilities in Knox, Klynn, Sparta, Salem, and Orange Townships, affecting 740 locations.
Former board member David Amor has spearheaded the steering committee that has worked to expand broadband service in the county. He told the board that these projects would make significant progress in connecting rural residents.
“Should all these projects come to fruition, they would reach in excess of 1,600 [unserved and underserved] locations. Which, based on the Illinois Broadband Lab data, is about 80 percent of all of the [unserved and underserved] locations in the county.”
Should these projects not come to fruition, the funds would be released back to the county for reallocation.
