RUSSELL — As Comcast upgrades the lines serving former customers of Russell Cable, which the Philadelphia-based company bought in October 2021, Steve Delnickas, president of Russell Underserved Taxpayers (RUT), said the group of 40 to 42 households that do not have any wired connection to cable television or the internet is trying to stay visible.

“From our point of view, as long as we had Russell Cable, we knew we had no chance of hooking up,” said Delnickas, who is also a member of the town’s Finance Committee. “When they decided to divest to Comcast, it gave us some hope that Comcast would have the wherewithal to do it. If we’ve learned anything in the last couple of years, it’s how important broadband and the internet is for remote learning, people who work from home, and property values.”

Now RUT wants the town selectmen to put aside some of Russell’s $550,000 in federal American Rescue Plan Act funds to help pay for the cost to connect remote areas in town that were never served by Russell Cable. Delnickas said broadband service is one of the specific purposes of the ARPA funds that were given to the towns in August.

According to the fact sheet from the U.S. Department of Treasury, broadband infrastructure is listed as one of a handful of uses for the ARPA funds, with the direction to “make necessary investments to provide unserved or underserved locations with new or expanded broadband access.”

Some of the roads in Russell that do not have broadband service include Timber Ridge, Homestead, Upper Moss Hill, one household on Blandford Stage Road, a couple of areas in Woronoco and on Carrington Road, Delnickas said. The group has continued to discover more unserved areas where residents want broadband.
At a meeting with Comcast in October 2021, Daniel M. Glanville, vice president of governmental and regulatory affairs in Comcast’s Western New England Region, told residents he had begun the conversation with Massachusetts Broadband Institute (MBI), which has worked with Comcast in the past to connect unserved residents in 35 Western Massachusetts communities through the state’s Last Mile program.

“We have told MBI we are having this conversation. We are willing to engage them, and MBI said there might be other funding,” Glanville said at the meeting, adding that Comcast wants to add the additional customers.

Delnickas said now is the time to act.

“Comcast has preliminary estimates on what it would cost to get everyone hooked up. They seem interested. Dan Glanville said he was going to open a conversation with the MBI group about trying to get some funding. There is potentially a lot of money federally and through the state that might become available,” he said.

He said he had a conversation with Glanville after that meeting, and was told the MBI looks favorably on local investment in expanding broadband access.

“Russell received $550,000 in ARPA funds. The MBI looks at it as a positive if the town has some stake in the game. We had approached the Selectboard at an ARPA meeting. They didn’t say no; we also have not gotten any definitive answer out of them,” he said.

Delnickas said the town had formed a working group to consider the potential uses for the ARPA funding. He said participants were under the impression that they would not be meeting again until January, but the group seems to have disbanded after one meeting and the town has started to spend the money, recently giving $150,000 to the Police Department for staffing.

Denickas said he understands that it’s challenging for the Board of Selectmen: “Like a lot of the small hilltowns, there are a lot of things that need to get done. They’re doing the best they can.”

He said RUT will be making a formal request for funding to the Board of Selectmen

“I don’t think we’re being unreasonable. We’re basically asking for 20 percent of what they got in ARPA funds. My general feeling is that at the end of the day, the Selectboard will do something to help us whether they use the ARPA funds, free cash, or the stabilization fund. I think they realize the importance of this for their constituents,” Delnickas said.