We started the Mid-Hudson Region Rural Technology & Broadband Alliance (the Alliance) in 2009 when The Institute for Family Health, Inc. retained our services to process broadband grant applications under a Federal program for broadband expansion. Our initial alliance consisted of the various offices of The Institute in Dutchess and Ulster Counties, as well as Ellenville Regional Hospital and the Catskill Hudson Area Health Education Center. For purposes of grant funding, a local broadband provider, PAETEC, now Windstream, also joined in the grant.
Over the course of this carrier-neutral project we anticipate adding many new permanent direct, secondary and temporary jobs in the areas of construction, maintenance, broadband operations, system maintenance, digital literacy training, equipment sales and installation, community outreach and communication, and Internet technology adoption, among others.
As our business continued, and as more time was made available to extend our alliance membership to other groups, we expanded the alliance so as to bring it more in line with certain State and Federal policy considerations concerning rural broadband. Thus, our alliances became voluntary organizations of community anchor institutions that serve vulnerable populations, plus other stakeholders. Such a voluntary group allowed us to form form a strategic partnership with business and political leaders, also consistent with State and Federal policy directives for the expansion of rural broadband.
Library systems are crucial members of our alliances. For the Mid-Hudson alliance Pamela Stocking, Director of the Ellenville Public Library & Museum, over the course of four years, has provided active support and guidance for our project. In addition, Hattie Grifo, Director of the Cragsmoor Free Library, has expressed her support for our project to political leaders. Ms. Grifo has also been instrumental in assisting us in discussing a philanthropic contribution to conservation efforts for the Sam’s Point area of the Hamlet of Cragsmoor.
Rural medical offices and hospitals are an important part of our alliances. In this regard, both The Institute and Ellenville Regional Hospital remain as crucial members of our alliance and also as major supporters. The participation of the rural medical sector is important to the community, especially when considering the needs of the most vulnerable members of the community. The implementation of interoperability, including the accelerated adoption of electronic health records (EHR), continues towards meeting the goal of full implementation by 2014. We are thankful to attorney Thomas A. Burke, for his tireless efforts in guiding us on questions of interoperability, EHR adoption, Health Information Exchanges (HIE), and contract and business issues. With such implementation comes a huge expansion in the demand for high speed broadband. Without such high speeds, the medical management software, now cloud-based, cannot accomplish all of the necessary functions to achieve comprehensive patient care. The medical sectors, as well as other significant users of broadband, have suffered a net loss of broadband when considering the needs and speeds of today’s commercial enterprises.
We are thankful to Eric Will and Tom Cusumano and the entire team at Infinite Technology Solutions, Inc. The members of this team have spent countless hours in providing assistance to us with respect to project hardware solutions and configurations.
Rural job training centers provide for expanded job training and distance learning opportunities, thus expanding the demand for more broadband and more digital literacy training. Many members of our team have visited such job training centers. For those who seek a better job, a better education, expanded benefits, benefits, or other job-related services, these facilities play a crucial role in any community. At any time during business hours these centers are full of people, all utilizing the computers to expand and better their lives. Such huge demands for broadband must be addressed by the alliances.
For us, political support is also crucial and is, in fact, typically one of the first parts of our evaluation. Ellenville Mayor, Jeffrey Kaplan, was the first elected official to voice public support for our project. He has continued to provide leadership in the community for us for over four years. Former Town of Wawarsing Supervisor Distel and former Ulster Legislator Terry Houck also provided their support. Current Legislator Briggs suggested an original infrastructure site and has been a supporter for more than four years.
We have also had the opportunity to present our alliance project to the members of the Ulster County Environmental, Energy and Technology Committee. We are thankful to Chairman Belfiglio and to the members for allowing us to present our plan.
We are thankful to the Ulster County Legislature for passing a resolution in support of our alliance.
At the county executive level we have been honored with a letter of support from Ulster County Executive Michael Hein. Executive Hein’s Deputy Director for Economic Development, March S. Gallagher, Esq. has provided tireless leadership in the development of our project for over four years. As a result of Ms. Gallagher’s assistance the alliance was able to expand to provide for crucial broadband infrastructure expansion planning for Ulster County Mental Health Services and also for the Ulster County Workforce Investment Board and the Ulster County One Stop Career Centers.
We are thankful for the guidance that is provided by the regional offices of the New York Regional Economic Development Council agency.
We learned that access to crucial social services could be enhanced by digital literacy training programs and by expanded broadband access. We received valuable input from Lisa Cavanaugh, Director of Family of Ellenville, and from Michael Berg, Executive Director of Family of Woodstock, Inc.
We have received crucial support for site acquisition from the leadership team at Ellenville First Aid and Rescue, Inc. Both Legislator Briggs, the President and Mr. Horowitz, Director of Personnel, have allowed for the design of our project to proceed with an area of strategic importance.
Bryant Arms, the Building Inspector for the Town of Wawarsing, has been instrumental in providing guidance to us on issues concerning zoning. Mr. Arms has also provided guidance on procedures for co-location on existing telecommunications towers at Sam’s Point, among other locations.
We are thankful to Brian Schug, the Building Inspector for the Village of Ellenville. Mr. Schug advised us concerning infrastructure location sites as well as on existing telecommunications sites and availability.
Our project is well known to other political and community leaders. In Washington, both New York’s Senators have been recipients of our consistent updates and we are thankful for the time taken by staffers to listen to our plans. On the House side, although some Members have changed, we remain thankful to former Congressman Hinchey for all of his efforts and support on our behalf. We remain thankful to staff members of Congressmen Maloney and Gibson for allowing us to provide updates to their staffers.
We must acknowledge our ongoing contact with New York’s Broadband Program Office. The Office, like our initial company, was opened in 2009. From that time to the present, the Office has grown to become the ‘must go to’ office for the latest information on carrier-neutral broadband mapping in New York. We are thankful to David Salway and to Angela Liotta for their extraordinary efforts on this issue.
As the concept of digital literacy has expanded we are thankful to New York Library Association which created the program ‘Digital Literacy in New York.’ We are thankful to Mary Anne Waltz, the Projects Director, for her continuing assistance in the development of our project. The program consists of designing curriculum for the training of library staff and others. This ‘training the trainers’ program will allow for the trainers to greatly expand the digital literacy of all members of the community, but particularly to members of the most vulnerable populations.
Many others have provided crucial input to our alliance group. In addition, we have configured the overall project in differing forms in order to accommodate various funding opportunities that have been presented since we started.
At present, certain funding opportunities presented by the JOBS Act, passed by the Congress in the summer of 2012, will guide our project funding beginning on September 23, 2013. In addition, previous laws passed by the Congress to allow for certain investors from other countries to participate will also guide our funding. Both opportunities are governed by strict criteria, the former by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the latter by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, a branch of the Department of Homeland Security.
During the course of the current funding opportunities other opportunities may become available for funding. To the extent that such opportunities present a good fit for the project they will be pursued as part of the overall project.
In order to transact necessary business on behalf of the Alliance a New York corporation was formed in 2013 called the Mid-Hudson Valley Rural Broadband Company, Inc. (the corporation). The corporation is an affiliate corporation of Rural Broadband Company, Inc. This latter corporation was also formed in 2013 and is a composite of the efforts of our previous company, of other companies, and of individuals who have promoted funding opportunities for our alliances since 2009.
A growing number of policy considerations, directives, and laws serve to add great cohesion to our two core project goals: expanded rural broadband infrastructure and capacity along with digital literacy training. The policy initiatives of the Federal Communications Commission (the FCC), to include those that are a part of the the FCC’s National Broadband Plan, continue to serve as the core document in our efforts. Among these are included not only a description of policy goals for rural broadband, but also the ‘EveryoneOn’ initiative for the expansion of digital literacy.
The initiative by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS), for an expanded portal for the acceleration of electronic health records (EHR), called the ‘Blue Button Initiative,’ is incorporated into our project. The Blue Button Initiative will serve to expand on the EHR portal for America’s Veterans, known as Virtual Lifetime Electronic Health Record (VLER).
Similarly, the FCC’s ‘Connect America’ fund will provide for expanded benefits to broadband providers, thus allowing for the expansion of service in rural areas. Certain projects, or parts of certain projects, and rural broadband loan programs provided by the United States Department of Agriculture may also become a part of the alliance project.
In New York there have been active alliances formed to promote both the expansion of rural broadband and digital literacy. The New York State Broadband Program Office, together with the efforts of New York’s Governor and Lieutenant Governor, have provided more than $65 million in ‘Connect New York’ grants. These grants are distributed among New York’s ten Regional Economic Development Councils.
For some parts of the project infrastructure companies may choose to self-build different components of the system. We welcome a review of those dedicated companies and the opportunities which they may present to our alliance.
For other parts, charitable foundations and other groups may donate, or continue to donate, necessary components of the project.
As a part of our alliance goals, we seek to provide computer hardware and software as well as expanded broadband to the vital community anchor institutions, when possible, at no cost to those facilities.
In addition, with infrastructure projects, we understand that there is always some environmental displacement. To that end, one of our philanthropic goals includes providing funding solutions for conservation efforts in the project community.
As a part of our educational philanthropic commitment we seek to provide necessary funding at both the national and community levels for programs that concentrate on efforts to provide educational components to America’s future farmers. The current generation for this sector, in particular, will come to rely on technology in a manner that far exceeds any previous reliance.
In conclusion, our development efforts on behalf of our alliance members have allowed us to serve the Mid-Hudson Valley community in ways that we believe will provide a contribution to the technology needs that must be achieved so that business expansion, greater access, and expanded services can flourish.
We are guided by policy considerations, as well as by legal directives and funding opportunities that, taken together, provide for a comprehensive project that includes rural broadband infrastructure and capacity expansion, as well as expanded training for digital literacy. We embrace the challenges of community anchor institutions that serve vulnerable populations in striving to provide for expanded services, including the acceleration of the adoption of electronic health records, eCommerce, eGovernment, distance learning, job training, medical care, including mental health care, and valuable community social services programs.
We will work to provide as much equipment and broadband to those community anchor institutions as possible, ever mindful of the significant project goal of generating revenue.
We will make contributions to conservation and educational efforts in each project community.
And, finally, we will create a presence on broadband program office maps illustrating our contribution to expanded rural broadband.
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