Bridgeport’s big broadband plans stumble
BRIDGEPORT — City officials have spent much of Bridgeport’s share of $110 million in federal coronavirus relief, but one of Mayor Joe Ganim’s stated priorities for a portion of the money, improving broadband infrastructure, is not get moving.
And while supporters of the effort expressed disappointment, there’s also the question of what exactly will happen next with that particular $8 million reserve.
More than a year ago, in August 2021, the mayor’s office announced various ways in which it planned to use the city portion of American Rescue Plan (ARP) dollars, from helping hundreds of local businesses and non-profit organizations to funding youth programs and helping residents facing eviction. And those have come to pass.
One of the largest single investments was $8 million in broadband infrastructure to help provide residents and businesses with better high-speed Internet access. Earlier this month, Tom Gaudett, a Ganim aide who was heavily involved in overseeing the use of ARP dollars, briefly mentioned to City Council budget committee members that the broadband project was, in fact, was not taking place.
Gaudett explained this week that a key piece of the effort, the installation of the necessary fiber optic cables in the city, is “very expensive.”
“Even the few million that we were going to put down is not close to the actual number of what it would cost,” Gaudett said.
Although the members of the City Council, all Democrats like Ganim, last year had offered their own recommendations, and the Ganim administration also sought public input, the mayor and his staff have been given free rein to use the funds as they see fit, as long as they follow federal guidelines.
City Council Speaker Aidee Nieves said Tuesday that this was the first time she had heard of the change in broadband plans. She said it’s an example of the mayor announcing something that could have a significant long-term impact, without follow-up.
“As much as I support the mayor, sometimes he gets distracted,” Nieves said.
“I would consider this to be another broken promise from the Ganim administration,” said another councilwoman, Maria Pereira.
Gaudett said improving online access remains a priority, but the city is now seeking help from the state. particularly youThe state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection is developing a broadband equity grant program using nearly $136 million from the ARP and the federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act passed in late 2021.
“We need to know from the state what they are going to do with those dollars,” Gaudett said. “They talk a lot about broadband. (So) doing something about it is not out of the question.”
According to the state’s website, DEEP aims to begin accepting grant applications for some of the broadband funds in the “first quarter” of 2023 and the “second quarter” of 2024.
Tyler Mack, a member of the council’s budget committee, said Tuesday: “If you’re looking at the state, I would expect the mayor to push our (legislative) delegation, the governor to actually get these funds because this should be a priority.”
Pereira said he had recently been wondering what happened to Ganim’s broadband initiative, calling such infrastructure “critical in urban and impoverished cities.”
“I can tell you that it is a real problem,” Pereira said. “There are so many kids who don’t even have (online) access to do their homework. What about the adults? Almost everywhere you want to apply for a job now, there are no more paper applications. Everything has to be done digitally. “
However, in a 2021 survey the city conducted on how to use ARP dollars, broadband actually ranked second to lastabove “sewer infrastructure” and below other priorities like youth services, mental health and domestic violence, workforce development, and the arts.
Recently, the Bridgeport Public Library stepped in to try to help. Using a grant from the Federal Communications Commission, the library system has recently started lending 500 mobile devices — Chromebooks, laptops and mini wireless “hotspot” internet boxes, in an effort to help households with little or no online access.
It was not immediately clear Tuesday if and how some of that $8 million was spent for broadband, and what is left.
Councilman Scott Burns, co-chair of the budget committee, noted that the group has been seeking ARP updates from the mayor’s office every few months and will continue to do so.
“We’re trying to keep an eye on it. But I’m not entirely sure where that $8 million is going to go,” Burns said.
One possibility would be to fill a potential budget hole created by another slow-moving Ganim administration initiative, the effort to sell the city’s Sikorsky Memorial Airport to the Connecticut Airport Authority.
The Mayor’s 2022-23 City Budget that went into effect last July 1 balanced $4 million off the expected sale price of $10 million. But last month the administration and the head of the CAA admitted that the process had gone slower than expected and that the final agreement they wanted to present to the council for approval this year will not be finalized until 2023.
Burns said that under federal ARP guidelines, the city could use part of the $8 million to “replenish the $4 million.”
Nieves said he also expects that to be the mayor’s plan for some of the broadband funding.
“That’s going to fill the void that we don’t sell the airport,” he said.