State awards broadband grants to two Tribal communities

Two Tribal communities in New Mexico will receive state grants totaling $200,000 for broadband planning, engineering, and grant writing. Santa Clara Pueblo in Rio Arriba County and the Fort Sill Chiricahua Warm Springs Apache Tribe in Luna County each received a maximum $100,000 planning grant through the state’s Grant Writing, Engineering and Planning Program. The New Mexico Office of Broadband Access and Expansion administers the program, which has allocated $5 million to the program to help Tribes, local governments, and cooperatives obtain grants to provide broadband to unserved areas. Santa Clara Pueblo will use its grant to develop a three-phase broadband project to build a fiber line from the intersection of state Routes 84 and 285 and state Route 399 to the end of state Route 399. The project includes connecting homes and providing Wi-Fi service for safety and security along trails around the Pueblo-owned Black Mesa Golf Club. The Fort Sill Chiricahua Warm Springs Apache Tribe will use its grant to begin the design and engineering for a high-speed broadband network to bring reliable internet to its unserved homeland located in southern New Mexico. The funding will provide for detailed engineering plans needed to overcome the physical barriers that have prevented connectivity. The Tribe has already secured $500,000 in infrastructure funding for fiber, equipment, and trenching.