Half of West Virginia has Applied for Broadband Assistance

Summer 2017, the West Virginia state legislature decided to take some leftover funds for water and sewer projects and reinvest it in another essential public utility: the internet. These funds were evidently needed, because half of all counties in the state—27 of 55—have already applied for a piece of the pie.

In July, the state announced that a combination of those leftover funds and a portion of the state’s Community Development Block Grant—a national program that funds community growth projects—would be combined to provide a pot of an estimated $1.5 million for West Virginia communities to use on building broadband infrastructure for underserved communities. The requests filed so far total just over that, at $1.59 million.