Unsuccessful Help Us to the Finish Line - Carver County Rural Broadband

On 3/10/2023 CarverLink submits a Congressionally Directed Spending (CDS) Request Application for a project identified as Help Us to the Finish Line - Carver County Rural Broadband. The application requests 75% grant assistance for a $2.5 million project to build out 70 miles of open access distribution fiber that would connect to CarverLink’s existing fiber network, to connect an identified 442 rural locations scattered throughout the townships of San Francisco, Hancock, Dahlgren, Benton, Laketown, Camden, Waconia, Young America, Hollywood, Watertown.  Metronet would cover the drop costs from the roadside into the locations and we would just expand upon the existing and ongoing CarverLink build with these funds.  The County is required to provide 25% match for the $2.5 million (so $625k) which Administration has said they would work to come up with from County funds.  The CDS was reviewed and progressed by both Senator Klobuchar and Senator Smith from Minnesota.

On 07/31/23 CarverLink receives  notification from Senator Klobuchar’s office that our CDS funding request for the $2.5 million Help Us to the Finish Line - Carver County Rural Broadband will not be getting moved forward for consideration.