The Arkansas Legislature’s Joint Budget Committee approved a request by the state’s Department of Commerce regarding the release of $53.3 million in ARPA resources. As the Northwest Arkansas Democrat Gazette reports, the bulk of the funds will be distributed to eight different projects, with $2 million budgeted for administration.
The largest grant, $14.2 million, will channel to Rural Connect LLC/Cox Communication LLC. Matching funds from the telecom partnership will help bring high speed internet to 1,700 households in Logan County. Other grants ranging from $10.9 million down to $1.6 million were awarded to a handful of different providers with each tackling projects in different counties.
Jim Hudson, Chief of Staff at the Department of Commerce, said the grant recipients were decided by a competitive process. “Applications were submitted. The available money was about $150 million, and we selected the projects that fit the budget and had the highest capability for being deployed relatively soon. As I have shared … several times,” he said, “We have done the easy stuff, so from here on out it’s harder in terms of the level of effort and more expensive, but no one gets left out. With the federal money that comes in from the [Infrastructure Law], 100% of the state gets covered. Has to be.”
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