“It is truly a new day in Northwest Alabama!” Steve Foshee exclaimed as he stood in front of over 300 people on Thursday, May 3 at a press conference held at Tombigbee Electric Cooperative. This large group included students from Hamilton and Winfield school systems, local leaders of the community, United States elected officials, Alabama elected officials, several media representatives and many more. Foshee introduced speakers for the day including Congressman Robert Aderholt, Governor Kay Ivey and U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue. During this press conference, Robert Aderholt stood at the podium and stated, “I’m proud to announce Tombigbee has been awarded 3 million dollars in a federal grant to help them in what is a massive expansion to help bring broadband fiber optic cable throughout the footprint of Northwest Alabama.”
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Rural Utilities Service (RUS) recently awarded Tombigbee Communications a $2.98 million grant, which will go directly to providing our freedom FIBER services to some of our most rural areas in Northwest Alabama. This grant money has the chance to make a huge transformative difference in rural Northwest Alabama. Aderholt commented, “There’s really been created two Americas. One America where people have access to the best tools, access to high speed broadband internet where they can educate their children, they can run and expand their business and they can access the latest medical technology and the latest expertise. The other America has been cut off from some of these same opportunities, and we find ourselves wanting to get what those cities in suburban areas have had for many years.” This gives us a chance to bridge the divide between our area and those in larger cities.
Tombigbee had the honor of hosting Congressman Robert Aderholt, Governor Kay Ivey and Secretary Sonny Perdue at our meeting. Governor Ivey spoke about the recent bill signed into law creating a state broadband access program. “It’s the first steps in a long term plan to provide internet all across our great state. In today’s world, access to good internet and broadband is crucial to education, to medical care, for economic development and a whole lot more,” Governor Ivey noted. “Broadband expansion will continue to be a priority of mine as I serve as governor.” Secretary Perdue bragged on Tombigbee Communications for their efforts and dedication to this project. “You are the forerunners of what I hope to see across the state,” he stated. “It means a real transformation for rural America having the opportunity to participate in the American Dream once again!”
In the first few rows of seating for the event, there were approximately 90 students from both Hamilton and Winfield school systems wearing blue shirts with “Broadband for Opportunities” printed across the front. One of our four main tenants of embarking on this project is to improve education systems in our area, so it was an honor to have these students in attendance for such an important announcement. “We want these young people, right here, to have a quality of life that makes them want to stay here. No longer are all of our young people going to have to move to big cities seeking jobs. They can have that right here in Northwest Alabama,” Steve commented. No longer will we be exporting our children to other areas. They will have the option to stay here and have access to the same opportunities people have in larger areas. U.S. Secretary of Agriculture echoed Steve’s point. “You’re going to have access through freedom FIBER right here in rural Alabama to the highest speed network available.”
In conclusion, this RUS grant will give us the option to provide high-speed broadband internet to the rural areas of Marion County. This will cover 80 square miles, serving over 425 homes. There will be a map included in our next issue but this area is the rural area from south of Hamilton, to north of Guin, almost to Brilliant to southwest of Haleyville.
We appreciate all those who celebrated our exciting news with us. We are currently working on additional grant applications to help us expedite our project even more.
