Stefanik wins kudos for $200,000 grant for new broadband project here

Officials greet good news at fire station

Some of the officials who joined Congresswoman Elise Stefanik at Wednesday's announcement of the $200,000 grant to fund a new broadband system here flank the federal representative in front of one of the fire department's pumpers. On the left were Garry Douglas, president of the North Country Chamber of Commerce and Town Supervisor Patti Littlefield. On the right were Mayor Paul Maroun and Assemblyman Dan Stec, who is running this fall for Senator Betty Little's position. (Dan McClelland photos)

by Dan McClelland

Congresswoman Elise Stefanik was in town Wednesday to meet with local officials and to discuss all the possibilities for the coming of a new high speed broadband telecommunications system here that a new $200,000 grant to the town will create. The federal representative is a member of the Northern Border Regional Commission which funded the grant for which she lobbied.

The money will permit the Development Authority of the North County (DANC) to install connections to the high-speed fiber optics line installed through Tupper Lake about five years ago to all businesses in the uptown and downtown areas. The new network is expected to be at least ten times faster than current ones available here and can be easily upgraded to speeds 100 times faster in the future. Many homes which aren’t served by the internet right now will be, under the new town plan.

The meeting of about 15 individuals who included Assemblyman Dan Stec, who is running this fall for Senator Betty Little’s seat, Mayor Paul Maroun and Supervisor Patti Littlefield was held in the fire truck bays of the Paul A. Maroun Emergency Services Building. A dozen or so seats were spread out in the central garage bay in front of a table where the congressional representative and Assemblyman Stec sat. Assemblyman Billy Jones joined the meeting via Zoom on a lap top on the table.

Congresswoman Stefanik remembered her visit there five years ago when the $4 million building was officially opened.

“The purpose of today’s event is to highlight the positive news of the Northern Border Regional Commission rural broadband funding for Tupper Lake, ” she began.

“As we all know rural broadband is more important than ever, given our many small businesses who have suffered through the COVID, for local governments struggling to get better broadband but also for our schools as well.”

She called the new money for Tupper Lake and its unique broadband project a bi-partisan effort at the county, state and federal level, noting that Assemblyman Jones, Senator Betty Little and local and county officials had all worked with her on the grant.

“The good news about the Northern Border Regional Commission funds is $200,000 of federal dollars that are going towards 5.5 miles of fiber cable here in Tupper Lake’s business community, plus three wireless hot spots and direct broadband access to 125 unserved homes.”

She said the application was prepared for the town and a committee formed by the town board nearly two years ago by DANC “which is such a critical partner” to communities in the region when it “comes to all sorts of new infrastructure.”

“In addition to my work advocating for the federal funding through the commission, I am also one of the leaders advocating for bi-partisan solutions for rural broadband infrastructure across the region.”

“I’ve introduced legislation with colleagues across the aisle on broadband and for that too on the federal Farm Bill.” She noted that farmers across the region are looking to technology to improve their herds and their crops.

She said part of her work has been with the Federal Communications Commission to “make sure its pot of money” for broadband is shared with New York State.

Ms. Stefanik said there were “issues” at the FCC earlier this year which prevented monies in that agency coming to this state and she said she was instrumental in working with the commissioner to make sure New York State was eligible for its funds for broadband.

“The purpose of today’s event is to talk about why this grant and this project is important for Tupper Lake!”

She opened up the forum to those in attendance that morning.

Assemblyman Dan Stec of Queensbury said “the importance of broadband in our communities cannot be overstated! It is an absolutely critical infrastructure now. It is today what years ago was electricity and the electrification of rural America.”

“That means there is a goal for government to play to bring this important infrastructure to places where it needs to be for its own sake but for the value it adds to property, the economy, public safety and now with issues like telemedicine, so important now with this pandemic.”

Telemedicine is where patients can now see their doctor or a doctor via computer.

“As we all know broadband is so important for the education of our children, and made more important now with the pandemic” and the need for distance learning, he stated.

He said without modern high-speed internet through broadband fiber optics systems like the new trunk line through Tupper Lake, children here “would be at a competitive disadvantage” to children in urban areas that already have high-speed internet.

“It’s an injustice we must continue to work on...it’s complicated work with many moving parts, but I’m absolutely thrilled with the announcement of these grant funds and the work that our congresswoman and all of our partners at all levels have done.”

Assemblyman Billy Jones of Chateaugay said, via computer, that in his assembly office broadband questions and need for better internet service and people getting connected “represent between 30% and 40% of our e-mails and calls.”

The Democrat applauded the Republican congresswoman “for all the work she has done getting this grant and other grants for our small towns and rural neighborhoods “providing projects that are essential to them.”

“Broadband is a utility. It is just as important as putting up the power poles in America at the beginning of last century.”

“This is an essential service that our businesses and our residents need. -And now more than ever with this pandemic it is so important for the distance learning going on in our schools.”

“We will continue to push for essential broadband and internet service- and just not getting it, but getting the proper services for our region.”

He said the satellite-based internet service that many in rural communities have had to depend upon “is just not satisfactory.”

Of today’s leaders in the North Country he said broadband improvements will be the legacy they will leave behind for future generations of families here: “getting connected, getting businesses connected, getting people connected. It is so important in our economic development, in our education and in our health and well being!”

Supervisor Patti Littlefield, whose town board formed a committee headed by Councilman John Quinn which did the leg work for these new funds, called the grant “a win for Tupper Lake that is beyond exciting for us!”

“We have so many people in our tiny little community who still don’t have proper internet service and access. With the schools closed in spring and summer and with the remote learning that is so critical now and the number of travelers who are coming to Tupper Lake to do business here, this is going to be such a boost to our economy. I can’t thank you all enough for participating in and supporting our grant application. The sum of $200,000 is a lot of money for us to get to provide this service to these people and to the community in general for our economic development.”

“Thank you, so much, Elise, for sponsoring this grant application with us, and a big thanks to our partners at DANC.”

She recognized DANC staffer Dave Wolf, a member of the town committee and the man who wrote much of the grant application.

“We are so happy to have our wonderful relationship with the Development Authority.”

The town has partnered with DANC on several successful public works projects here in recent years, most recently the expansion and upgrade of sewer district No. 3 at Tamarac village.

“We had a wonderful committee working on the application which assembled a lot of data for it,” the town supervisor told the group.

Committee members working under Mr. Quinn were Councilman Mike Dechene, Village Trustee Clint Hollingsworth, Community Developer Melissa McManus, Mr. Wolf, Leslie Karasin of the Northern Forest Center, Phil Wagshall, businessman Joe Hockey, Jeremy Evans of the county industrial development agency and Stephanie Ratcliffe of the Wild Center.

“The study the committee did really opened our eyes to the number of people here who do not have the availability for good internet service. With this broadband improvement, we certainly feel this is a win-win for Tupper Lake,” the supervisor concluded.

Mayor and County Legislator Paul Maroun had three points to make that morning.

“People don’t realize how hard it is to win a grant today. The Northern Border Commission does not just represent Tupper Lake. So when we have a congresswoman who can get us a grant for $200,000- just think of all the others who were competing for this money.”

He thanked Congresswoman Stefanik for “all your hard work securing us this money!”

He said her influence as chairwoman of the Northern Border Commission “bore fruit for Tupper Lake” on this important project.

His second point was that “not only education, not only our businesses, but we have many seasonal people here who live on the lake and are from the city and who want to work here more often. With broadband they will be able to stay here longer each year and maybe work right out of Tupper Lake at their lake homes year round.”

“This project has very expansive implications for us!”

He said as a county legislator this will spur the economy and generate more sales tax for the county “to help us keep property taxes down.”

“What the congresswoman has done today is going to affect all of us!”

Dave Wolf, telecommunications manager with DANC thanked the congresswoman for her support in what he said “was a highly competitive” grant application program.

He said of 43 applications from across four Northern states, only eight were funded.

“I know we wouldn’t have won without your support!” he told the house representative.

He applauded too the Town of Tupper Lake board for its initiative. “A lot of what made this happen was the town recognized this issue and established a committee to address it. The group looked at this in detail for over a year and that helped a lot.”

“The town wisely recognized that not only is broadband important but as a town they can work on many unique things.” One important element the town can control is “the affordability” of this new service.

He said DANC has helped many school districts connect to households for good distance learning. Mr. Wolf said one of the obstacles was not its availability, “but that families just couldn’t afford the services that were there.”

“With the town I think they can work through some of those issues” to make services affordable to all residents.

“The goal of this grant was to not just provide broadband to everyone, but to provide it at a lower price!”

“That will be important and the continued growth of the network will also be important!”

Also attending the session that day was Garry Douglas, president and CEO of the North Country Chamber of Commerce, who said the issues of good broadband service and good cell phone service across the region are closely tied together in importance.

The recent pandemic pointed out the desperate need for both, he stressed.

“If anyone was still saying: ‘oh, why should we be spending all this money on the Adirondacks so a few people there can watch movies on their computers’, this pandemic showed that’s not what this issue is all about. This pandemic proved this is now absolute human essential and we cannot have a region like the Adirondacks left out of this human essential!”

He said dispensing medical attention through new telemedicine means via computer was “largely theoretical” before this pandemic. “Insurance companies didn’t want to cover and people were reluctant to use it, but it’s now here!”

He said the pandemic “proved telemedicine was essential in this type of environment. Going forward it will be a key part of how healthcare is delivered, particularly in rural regions like ours. Folks now need access to tele-health...it’s not a choice!”

Mr. Douglas said the reliance of many schools and colleges since mid-March on distance learning has also pointed up the shortcoming of the North Country’s internet systems. “Many students couldn’t connect via the internet and had to go to some aunt’s house who lived somewhere to connect to their classes!”

He said the pandemic showed broadband is essential to life in the region.

It is also vital to business in the region, if it is expected to survive.

“Part of the old mythology of the economy of the North Country and the Adirondacks is that people are eventually going to live wherever they want in the world and they can tele-commute… they’ll do their work at home from the top of a mountain somewhere.”

“That of course is nonsense because we didn’t have broadband or good cell phone service there!”

As the availability of both become more commonplace in New York’s rural regions, that is happening at a good time “as people are exiting the cities in droves.”

He said there is a real estate boom currently underway in the Adirondacks because downstate people want to move to our communities and do their work from their new homes there.

“That trend needs to be supported more than ever by good broadband!”

“Thank you for all of that,” he told Congresswoman Stefanik. “It’s not a convenience now. It is a necessity!”

Of the timeline for the new broadband project here Dave Wolf said the aim is “to get everything up and running before the start of new summer.”

He predicted the new grant contracts would be signed this October or November. All the planning, final designs and equipment procurement for the new local system would be done this winter. Construction could start as early as April, he said, for a firing up of the new system by late May or early June.

Congresswoman Stefanik said during her tenure in Congress the funding for the Northern Border Commission has been substantially increased to permit the awarding of more grants like Tupper’s.

“The other key change I really fought for and was proud to deliver was that initially they only considered the counties right on the border to be part of the Northern Border region. I worded to expand the territory to include all the counties in the 21st congressional district.”

Before, she said, many counties like Warren had huge amounts of tourism reliant on the Canadian border but weren’t considered part of the Northern Border region. “I worked to change things so we were viewed as a region and not by whether our counties” actually touched the border.”

A good example of that benefit was the funding through the Northern Border Commission two years ago for a new cell tower in Old Forge, she said.

As a close to the discussion that morning Supervisor Littlefield said the speed of this current grant application process was amazingly fast.

“I don’t remember another grant that we have done at the town that the process was as smooth and the return so quick! It was not years but months!”

“We rely on grants in Tupper Lake, because we don’t want to hit the taxpayers for new programs we add!”

“Grants are wonderful things and the town and the village has gone after so many of them, a good share of which have been funded!”

The taxpayers have reaped the benefits of many grants awarded to the town and village, she concluded.