Areas without high-speed internet get $15 million boost from Pierce County Council
Pierce County Council dedicated more than $22 million on Tuesday for broadband, homeless services and businesses.
Pierce County has been allocated $175 million in Congress’ American Rescue Plan Act to respond to the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic on government, businesses and individuals. That funding has been doled out in increments, $88 million dollars of which has already been given to the county.
The council voted to spend $15 million to support expansion of broadband services in the county’s underserved areas.
One independent study commissioned by the county in 2019 found that while urban areas have “satisfactory” broadband, many businesses and residents in rural areas told the researchers they need more bandwidth and reliability, as well as lower costs.
Internet access is as crucial as access to education, water, sewer and electricity, the audit said, but bandwidth on the Key Peninsula and in Frederickson can drop to 1.5 megabytes per second, much lower than the national standard of 25 mbps.
The county doesn’t provide broadband services, but it does oversee rights of way and grants franchise agreements for telecommunication providers. The $15 million would address broadband infrastructure and match grant requests for underserved areas, council spokesperson Brynn Grimley said.
“In this economy, high-speed broadband has become a necessity, but too many people lack access to this public good,” Council Chair Derek Young said in a statement.
The council also voted to designate $8 million for small businesses: $4 million to adapt to changing market conditions and $4 million to offer access to bookkeeping, tax and legal advice and graphic design and web-based services.
Other earmarks approved by the council include $5 million for housing and homelessness to support acquisition of hotel/motel space in Tacoma, $1 million for the Mustard Seed Project to support services to seniors on the Key Peninsula, and $500,000 for an agricultural facility for smaller farms to share and use.
In April, the council approved the first round of $50.5 million for economic relief and helping social service programs. Of the first federal allotment, $88 million, about $8.6 million remains unspent.
This story was originally published July 8, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
