Minnesota State Senator Eric Lucero (R-St. Michael) today celebrated the announcement of a $2.55 million Border-to-Border broadband grant that will bring high-speed internet access to 1,227 households, businesses, and community institutions in the city of Nowthen.

“Access to reliable and affordable high-speed internet is absolutely critical to participate in our 21st-century economy,” Senator Lucero said. “Bringing broadband Internet to our underserved community will create new career potentials, provide access to telehealth services, allow for additional work-from-home options, enable greater educational opportunities, support our local businesses, and more.”

Sen. Lucero is a cyber-security professional working in the digital communications, networking, and technology space for over twenty years in his private sector career and has been a strong proponent the last nine years during his time in the Legislature advocating for the advancement of bandwidth and other innovation capabilities.

The $2.5 million state grant is part of a $8.5 million total project cost, which will have a $5.95 million local match including $800,000 from the city of Nowthen and $150,000 from Anoka County. The funding will enable Comcast to build a fiber optic network delivering speeds up to 1 Gigabit per second. The project will reach 1,227 locations that previously lacked modern broadband service. 

Local school districts were strong supporters of the grant. In a letter of support, they explained the importance of high-speed, reliable broadband service so children in the area can participate fully in all educational experiences available to them.

The Nowthen grant was one of 30 throughout Minnesota selected to receive a total of $66.9 million in the latest round of broadband grants from the Border to Border fund, which is administered by the Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED).

The Border-to-Border Broadband Development Grant Program was created in 2014. The legislative focus of this grant program is to provide financial resources that help make the business case for new and existing providers to invest in building broadband infrastructure into unserved and underserved areas of the state. 

The Border-to-Border Broadband Grant Program has been funded with state general fund revenues and a combination of both state general fund revenues and federal American Rescue Pan Act Capital Projects Funds (CPF). 

The 2023 Legislature appropriated $50 million for each of FY 2024 and FY 2025.