Bartholomew County still holds $4 million for rural internet

Bartholomew County still has $4 million left from COVID relief funds that was meant to be spent on high speed internet in rural parts of the county.

County Auditor Pia O’Conner updated the county commissioners this week on the status of the county’s American Rescue Plan funds, saying that the county did not spend any of the remaining funds in the last year. The money was earmarked for the project to bring high speed internet to rural parts of the county and would have gone to mStreet Fiber Indiana, as an incentive for finishing the project.

Earlier this year, mStreet Fiber Indiana said that they could not find contractors to finish the buildout within the budget they had set. That came after the original contractor filed for bankruptcy last year.

If not spent on the rural internet project by the end of this year, the money has to be returned to the federal government.

County Commissioner President Tony London has been a champion of rural high speed internet. He said that there is still hope that the feds might extend the deadline for returning the funds before the money has to be returned. London said high speed internet is available in about half of the rural areas of the county now and he has hopes that the work can still be completed.