STATE — The Maine Community Foundation’s Community Broadband Grant Program has awarded $117,793 in grants to 13 communities across Maine. The program aims to increase the number of Maine people, communities, and businesses with access to high-speed internet service and improve skills, knowledge, and opportunity to effectively use the technology.

“Increasingly, quality of life—and communication—for Maine people, communities, and businesses is improved by the ability to access reliable, affordable high-speed internet,” said Maggie Drummond-Bahl, MaineCF senior program officer. “We are proud to be one of many partners helping to boost local and regional efforts to improve connectivity across Maine.”

The 2020 grants include:

•  Town of Denmark, to engage residents in broadband goals, starting with committee outreach and ending with a network design project to expand presently poor broadband coverage: $6,000

•  Town of Fryeburg, to implement a community-involved process to plan for the eventual build-out of reliable high-speed internet to serve area residents: $5,000

•  Town of Harrison, to establish or upgrade affordable, accessible, and quality broadband service to the entire community: $4,500

•  Town of Naples, to conduct a town-wide community needs assessment to determine if residents and business owners have adequate access to broadband internet services: $10,000

A complete list of 2020 grants is available at www.mainecf.org. The Community Broadband Grant Program will continue in 2021. Details will be available at www.mainecf.org. The deadline for applications will be October 15, 2021.