USDA marks successful partnerships with two utilities

Agriculture Under Secretary for Rural Development Dallas Tonsager visited two rural utilities to help launch broadband services and to commemorate a major funding milestone and longstanding partnership with USDA.

Tonsager was on hand to help power up Consolidated Electric Cooperative’s Enlite Fiber Optic Network, which is bringing broadband service to a multi-county region in rural areas of the state. CEC is an electric distribution cooperative that provides electricity to about 16,000 members (homes and businesses) in eight counties in north central Ohio. The nearly 200 mile fiber “ring” connects customers in all or parts of Delaware, Franklin, Licking, Knox, Morrow and Richland counties to the rest of the world. In 2010, CEC received a $1 million grant and a $1.39 million loan from USDA’s Rural Utilities Service for smart grid technology and broadband services based on an open-connectivity, fiber optic backbone network. A Rural Development Technical Assistance Grant in the amount of $200,000 followed in 2011. The availability of increased broadband speed is expected to foster economic development, create jobs and modernize connectivity for area businesses, hospitals schools, and government facilities.