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Resident urges council to pursue Massachusetts Broadband Institute funding and digital-equity grants
Summary
A former digital-equity working-group chair told councilors Springfield may be eligible for Massachusetts Broadband Institute funds and urged officials to ensure applications for neighborhood grants were submitted to capture available federal allocations.
Steven Howard, who identified himself as a resident and the former chair of the city—s digital equity working group, urged the council during public speak-out on April 7 to ensure Springfield applies for Massachusetts Broadband Institute and federal digital equity funds he said remain available.
Howard said an MBI update would be provided at a McKnight Neighborhood Council meeting and told the council that, in his reading, large federal broadband allocations previously authorized by Congress and subsequent federal allocations have left substantial sums available for local digital-equity efforts. He urged the city to confirm that the digital-equity report submitted to the mayor—s office had been forwarded to MBI and said amounts on the order of “between a hundred thousand to a million dollars” might be available for Springfield.
Nut graf: Howard spoke from public comment, not on behalf of a neighborhood council, urging the city to pursue state- and federally administered broadband/digital-equity funds and to publicize available grant opportunities.
He also voiced skepticism about reliance on satellite-based services as a universal substitute for ground infrastructure, saying some federal discussion had favored SpaceX and similar providers. Howard asked the council to make sure the city follows up on the MBI process and on any mayoral-submitted reports.
Ending: Howard—s remarks were recorded in the public-comment portion; the council did not take immediate action but neighborhood groups said they would raise the topic in upcoming meetings.
(Remarks taken from the April 7 Springfield City Council meeting.)
