Jun 22, 2021 4 min read

As one of your Fayette County commissioners, I’ve had a front row seat to the unpredictability of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic over this past year.

With all the changes happening around us, we had to adapt quickly and address one of the major issues facing our rural county – limited internet connectivity.

Broadband expansion has always been one of my top priorities, and we’ve regularly met with state and federal legislators to garner support for the project, traveling to Washington, D.C. many times in the process. I also attended a Rural Broadband Summit in D.C. to learn more about the benefits of increased connectivity, and a regional study previously helped us further identify our internet access needs countywide.

However, as many of our citizens began working and learning from home, we knew we had to increase our efforts.

We’ve been working to expand our infrastructure for several years, but the project really took off when we received our allotted CARES Act federal funding in 2020. We were able to dedicate more than $5.3 million from the first round of funding to expanding WiFi capabilities along the state Route 40 corridor.

By successfully implementing our plan in less than six months, we set the standard for rural counties hoping to bring high-speed internet access to even the hardest-to-reach areas. That success also earned us more than $1.5 million in additional project support from the second round of CARES Act funding.

We want to thank DCED (the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development) for recognizing the importance of our project. They chose to support just four projects out of countless candidates statewide in round two, and Fayette County was awarded the largest portion of that funding.

Of course, the additional funding was also earned through a commitment of local Community Development Block Grant funds by the county and Dunbar, Georges, German, Luzerne, Menallen and Redstone townships. We love when our municipalities work together to tackle big projects.

We also want to thank VitaLink LLC of Markleysburg for working diligently and efficiently to complete Phase I of our project. It’s always good to work with Fayette County businesses when we can, because it provides an additional boost to our local economy.

We created the broadband expansion initiative in the hopes of providing our residents, businesses and visitors easier access to free, high-speed internet. What we’ve achieved thus far has been much bigger than that. By building the county’s fiber-optic backbone, we successfully laid the foundation for future expansion into even more remote areas and solidified the project as one worthy of funding.

The “CARES” in CARES Act stands for Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security. Ensuring our citizens, local businesses and municipalities maintained that economic security has always been paramount. Continuity of operations can only be achieved if everyone remains connected.

Fayette County recently received more than $12.6 million in federal funding through round one of the newly created American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, with a second, identical round of funding due to arrive in 2022. We plan to use a portion of that funding to further support the project.

Additionally, we are actively pursuing other grant opportunities through all available avenues, in the hopes of achieving our ultimate goal of offering connectivity to every household, school, medical facility and business that wants it.

This is the infrastructure of the future, and it’s opening doors to many economic development opportunities that haven’t existed in the past. As your board of commissioners, we are determined to never let Fayette County fall behind in its broadband development, not like in the 1950s, when Interstate 70 didn’t come through Fayette County as it should have.

We will not miss any opportunities when it comes to increasing our connectivity. We will stay ahead of the curve in every way possible.

While you’re traveling through Fayette County, keep an eye out for the signs marking our broadband internet hotspots. A full list of current hotspot locations is available on our county website, www.fayettecountypa.org.

Fayette County is at the cusp of being further ahead in its broadband development than other rural counties across Pennsylvania and nationwide. We’re excited to keep that momentum going as we look toward the future.

Vincent A. Vicites

Fayette County commissioner