BERRIEN COUNTY BROADBAND INTERNET PROJECT UPDATE

By DEBRA HAIGHT
BCR Correspondent
ST. JOSEPH – Expanding broadband service in rural parts of Berrien County has been a major focus at the county and township levels in 2022 and efforts will likely gain new momentum in the next month or so. County officials have indicated they plan to apply soon for state grants to cover the $30 million plus price tag identified for broadband projects.
While Bainbridge and Oronoko Townships were the two townships to get matching funds from Berrien County earlier this year, requests from other townships since then have been put on hold as county officials decide how they want to move forward.
At the start of the year, Berrien County Commissioners set aside $6 million for broadband projects of the nearly $30 million the county received in American Rescue Plan Act funds. After the grants totaling $1.26 million to Bainbridge and Oronoko Townships, the process got bogged down on a couple of fronts.
County officials realized that matching grant requests from townships would very likely exceed the $6 million they had set aside for these projects. They also realized they needed more concrete data about how much of the township is unserved or underserved when it comes to broadband.
The more concrete data came over the summer and early fall as the DCS Technology Design firm traveled throughout the county, mapping all 86,000 property parcels and documenting which have little or no broadband access. They found 15 percent of the 86,000 parcels or 11,540 addresses in the county with no access to broadband.
DCS representatives and county officials have said that having accurate information is important, not only in light of the inaccurate Federal Communications Commission maps produced two years ago but also to make sure the data is correct as the county and local townships apply for new federal and state broadband grants.
The DCS study estimated that it could cost between $48.5 million and $84.5 million to fill in all the service gaps, with much of that money coming from those new grant programs.
County officials provided the DCS information to area townships so that they could complete their grant applications by the Oct. 31 deadline. “Oct. 31 was the deadline for communities to apply for grants,” County Commissioner and BC Bit Chair Teri Freehling said at a recent county board meeting. “As is usual, there are more asks than there is money.”
More than a dozen Berrien county townships submitted grant applications to the county by the Oct. 31 deadline. Their requests were based on the information provided by the DCS study and followed the recommendation of county officials to apply for the maximum amount they need.
Three south county townships submitted some of the biggest grant requests to the county.
Buchanan Township’s application to the county asked for $5.5 million in county funds which would be matched by $300,000 in local funds. The DCS study showed that 503 parcels in the township currently don’t have broadband access.
Buchanan Township Supervisor Malinda Cole-Crocker said the township followed the advice of county officials and asked for the maximum amount mentioned as being needed in the DCS study.
Three Oaks Township submitted the second highest request to the county. They are asking for $4.51 million from the county to provide broadband service to 451 parcels in that township.
Galien Township has submitted a grant request for nearly $3.1 million. That amount would be matched by $869,300 in local funds to provide broadband to 799 parcels.
Freehling reported that 17 communities in all had submitted applications and were asking for a total of $32.69 million to fund broadband projects. She said the BC Bit taskforce and county officials are reviewing the requests to see if some of them can be completed in conjunction with other projects.
Otherwise, she said the county is looking to apply for new state and federal broadband grants that will soon become available. She noted that the Michigan High Speed Internet Office will soon make $250 million worth of new grant opportunities available.
The Michigan High-Speed Internet Office was established in 2021 by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer as part of the state’s efforts to expand broadband service throughout the state. The office is within the Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity.
“The MI HI office announced that they will be announcing the new funding in mid-December,” Freehling said. “Berrien County along with a few other counties are well-suited to put in an application.”
“We will likely come to you with a request to go out for grant funding to fund some of the additional projects we can’t fund ourselves,” she added. “Our goal is to meet the objective of full connectivity.”
Fellow BC Bit taskforce member and county commissioner Ezra Scott noted that Berrien County has been a leader in the state when it comes to broadband. “When we started BC Bit, we knew there was a problem but didn’t know how to address it,” he said. “Now we are one of less than 10 counties eligible to apply for a part of the $250 million.”
“We are eligible for these grants because we did the right thing and did it light years ahead of others,” he added. “That puts us in a good spot to secure some of the $250 million for Berrien County.”
As for what the process will look like, County Administrator Brian Dissette said he expects the county to use the applications received from townships this fall to guide the efforts to secure additional grants. He said he does not anticipate any township requests to be approved until a significant effort has been made to secure outside funding.
Dissette said the plan right now is to submit the MI-HI application soon after the first of the year if not earlier. The hope is the make a large application that would cover all the funding requests made by townships in the county, he added.