At the September meeting, the BHT Board of Directors approved an allocation of up to $207,000 in funding from Integrated Managed Care (IMC) dollars to support the Washington State Broadband Office's Feasibility and Grant Maximization Initiative.

Specifically, these funds will go toward 18 broadband grant applications: two projects in each of our counties (Spokane, Adams, Lincoln, Stevens, Ferry, and Pend Oreille) and two projects each for the Spokane Tribe of Indians Reservation, Kalispel Tribe of Indians Reservation, and Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation.

These IMC funds were set aside in 2019 for telehealth strategies, but COVID expedited that work for us. Since then, we have heard from our behavioral health partners that there are many positives to the telehealth appointments. However, patients lacking access to the internet remains a massive barrier to delivering services.

This Feasibility and Grant Maximization Initiative aims to maximize Federal Grant funding that flows into the State's rural broadband communities. This will be done by funding the creation of grant applications that are highly targeted, produced with uniform quality, and managed by expertise familiar with the technical details of broadband networks and Federal grant applications.

This work will be accomplished through the joint forces of the Washington State Broadband Office, GEO Partners LLC (expert in network and financial modeling), and Learn Design Apply Inc (LDAI) (expert in grant consulting and proposal writing). This team's work will give multiple communities a chance at obtaining needed Federal dollars for broadband deployments.

Background

Broadband access has been a long-recognized need in rural Washington. Washington Senate Bill 5511 was passed in 2019 and recognized Washington residents' critical need to have broadband access and created the Washington State Broadband Office within the Commerce Department.

While commonly known, Washington State does not have sufficient data for demonstrating the lack of coverage. In July 2020, the Department of Commerce launched a statewide testing mechanism to provide real-time connectivity data. This work is a vital step in achieving the state's goal to have universal broadband access in Washington by 2024.