Multiple Southern and Southeastern Kentucky counties will share $25 million in federal funds to expand broadband access.
The grant was presented earlier this month by Gov. Andy Beshear and U.S. Rep. Hal Rogers to the Center for Rural Development in Somerset.
Lonnie Lawson, the center’s director, said the counties include Knox, Laurel, Lincoln, Pulaski, Rockcastle, Clay, Cumberland, Metcalfe and Monroe.
“So all counties that are desperately needing broadband access, we made these projects possible, and we're going to keep doing more of that,” he said.
Lawson says the funding will bring high-speed internet to about 5,000 households. Construction can begin as soon as the Kentucky Office of Broadband Development signs the contracts.
Rural broadband projects are more viable when they’re done to serve a cluster of households, Lawson said.
“We need to be able to find a fairly good little pocket of them to be able to do a project, because (we) can't do one-offs,” he noted.
Rogers and Beshear presented a check to Lawson at the Shaping Our Appalachian Region summit, or SOAR, in Corbin.
