“Coming together is a beginning, keeping together is progress, working together is success,” according to Henry Ford. This sentiment could be the motto for a group of Roque Bluffs residents who saw a need and did something about it.
     Washington County has seen a number of local towns come together in pursuit of lofty goals. Lubec with its $19.6 million breakwater is just one recent example. Lack of broadband access is another service local communities are committing to resolve more and more on their own. Recently Calais and Baileyville joined together to improve Internet access by way of fiber-optic lines, and now Roque Bluffs is on the cusp of doing the same thing for its roughly 300 residents. On January 30, it was announced that Roque Bluffs is one of three Maine coastal communities to receive funding through a U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) program.
     The town will receive a $893,170 ReConnect Program grant to go towards the cost of constructing a fiber-optic network to connect households to broadband access. The projected cost for the project submitted by Axiom Technologies is $1,190,893. The town's financial responsibility would be $297,723. In addition, the town received notification of a Connect ME grant of $50,000 being awarded, which will help defray the town's portion.
     "This process started back in the early winter of 2018 when many residents didn't have Internet access for about two months," says Lisa Hanscom. "There was a lot of anger and frustration in town." Hanscom, who served 19 years as a selectman for Roque Bluffs, is credited by its broadband team and many in her community for keeping their goal out front and ensuring many residents knew about what they were trying to do. It was then placed into the hands of a broadband committee to begin working with the Island Institute and Axiom Technologies to make it happen.

Rural towns and the Internet
     In March 2018 Congress provided $600 million to USDA to expand broadband infrastructure and services in rural America. These grants, loans and combination funds enable the federal government to partner with the private sector and rural communities to build modern broadband infrastructure in areas with insufficient Internet service.
     Maine 2nd District Congressman Jared Golden and others spoke at length during a field hearing on broadband in September 2019 on the campus of the University of Maine at Machias. At that time, Golden's message was, "Access to broadband has become a necessity for a growing number of businesses and many parts of rural America."
     In that discussion Hanscom provided a snapshot on the obstacles to accessing federal grants for broadband and offered thoughts on ways to lower those barriers for rural municipalities. She and the community were recognized by Golden for their efforts.
     As part of the application process State Rep. Will Tuell of East Machias and State Senator Marianne Moore of Calais provided letters supporting the effort. Both are pleased to see investment dollars flowing into rural areas. "I am very excited for the Town of Roque Bluffs that their broadband grant came through after years of hard work," says Tuell. "These grants are extremely hard to get, especially for our smaller, rural communities, as the grants require a lot of technical knowledge and persistence, mainly as they are designed for larger communities with dedicated staff."
     "The Roque Bluffs' project is a model of broadband public‑private partnerships," says Moore. "They are working with one of their existing Internet service providers to deploy a network that will serve the entire town for decades to come."

A path forward
     "The Island Institute and Axiom were essential in making this a reality," says Roque Bluffs First Selectman Karen Miller. According to Miller, it was the Island Institute, specifically Stephenie MacLagan, who guided them through the process and provided the seed money to develop the engineering plans and administer the grant.
     "Our mission is to sustain Maine's island and coastal communities, and central to one of our strategic goals is the expansion of 21st century reliable, high‑speed Internet coast‑wide," says MacLagan. "Town officials demonstrated great political will in ultimately making a recommendation on a public‑private partnership to build out broadband to the entire community."
    "We were a part of the application and support for the town and have signed an agreement to construct and operate the new fiber system, which when complete will give the residents of Roque Bluffs better Internet connectivity than New York City," says Axiom President and CEO Mark Ouellette. "It's a great win for a small rural town and shows the way for others in Washington County and rural Maine."