Zinke presents ADLC with $150K grant for broadband infrastructure

Congressman Ryan Zinke and Anaconda-Deer Lodge County Chief Executive Bill Everett shook hands over a federal broadband infrastructure grant through the ConnectMT Program that was officially presented to ADLC in the form of a $150,000 check in Deer Lodge on Friday afternoon.

“The ConnectMT Program was codified in Senate Bill 297 and House Bill 632 in Montana’s 67th legislative session by Governor Gianforte in order to provide broadband service to areas in need throughout the state. HB 632 also created the Communications Advisory Commission (CAC) to oversee Montana’s American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) dollars. The Department of Administration (DOA) is responsible for establishing and administering the broadband infrastructure deployment program,” stated the Montana.gov website. 

The grant was established with the purpose of providing high-speed internet access to several counties throughout the state, and the Smelter City was one of those recipients.

“I think it’s important,” said Zinke. “I said it in appropriations and the grants are going somewhere because they’re for a purpose. Well, why not here? At the end of the day – Montana we’re a flyover state, but people don’t realize we have challenges here. We have water. We have sewer. And a million bucks, or a million-five bucks, and sometimes three million bucks makes a huge difference. Sometimes not so much in a big city, but here it makes a big big difference.”

Zinke referenced the Anderson Bridge in Dillon as an example, stating “To most people that bridge doesn’t mean anything. But to those people around there, that bridge means a lot. And so I’m glad to do it. I met people along the way and it’s been good.”

When asked about how Anaconda would benefit, Zinke responded, “Well on the internet, if there are gaps where this will fill – look, the world is changing, technology’s changing and our kids and businesses need fast internet. And Anaconda’s changing. And actually I’m very bullishon Anaconda. It’s changing the dynamic. You’ve got a golf course, you’ve got a new restaurant and hotel, it is changing and the demographic is starting to change, too. That means, thank goodness, a little more young. Young also comes with an appetite for internet technology and some of them are doing small businesses that require that, and it’s an obstacle if it’s not there.”

Everett explained how the process went about. 

“We’ve been in pursuit of this money for about 18 months with Zinke’s office. He’s the one who led this thing up. He’s the one who offered it,” he said. “We had multiple problems with our government buildings. One is we don’t have the broadband high-speed optics coming in and a lot of our government applications we have actually won’t process due to the fact our speeds aren’t fast enough as well as our security is in question. So with this, not only will we get broadband in every one of the county offices, which is [the] Health Department, Superfund, crossover at Maintenance, Cemetery, all of those, we’ll all be able to be interconnected. We’ll all be on fiber optics broadband high speed, we’ll have the security wall, that’s phenomenal.”

Concerns arose in November 2023 after approximately 20 district computers were hacked in the Butte School District and ​​when the breach was discovered IT personnel were forced to turn off the district’s entire computer system including approximately 3,500 end-user devices including all desktop and laptop computers and tablets. 

“That’s one of the biggest things I’m looking for, that security wall, because you keep hearing about all those government and social agencies in Butte getting broken into. This will be a protection, so this is something we needed to do anyway, and we were looking at doing it and we’re told, hey, there might be some money. So we held tight with the money, so now we’ll be able to do something we were going to do anyway – had to do anyways. It’s pretty expensive, about $150,000, and this takes care of the whole thing,” Everett said. “This is very specific what we can and cannot use it for. It’s basically for our government offices.”  

Future broadband grants will be available, but must be applied for, which Everett said he is prepared to pursue.