$11.9M in broadband, digital grants for NE Tennessee

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WJHL) — BrightRidge has won a $6.7 million state grant to expand broadband infrastructure as part of an announcement that also includes almost $3 million in various “digital skills, education and workforce” grants for Northeast Tennessee.

In addition, Johnson County will receive $2 million under a “connected community facility” program to help convert a former armory to a multi-use educational facility in collaboration with the Johnson County School System. Five Northeast Tennessee counties are getting smaller “broadband ready communities” grants.

The Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development (ECD) announced $162.7 million in “broadband and digital opportunity grants” Tuesday.

BrightRidge’s award will help it extend broadband infrastructure to some hard-to-reach areas in both Washington County and Greene County, according to the announcement.

BrightRidge will also match the grant up to $2.86 million to help build 235 miles of fiber broadband infrastructure. It will serve 2,067 homes altogether, 1,868 from Washington County and 199 in Greene County. 3,826 homes along the middle mile will also benefit after the grant has been completed.

BrightRidge CEO, Jeff Dykes said this expansion helps open the door for remote workers and economic development.

“We get calls ‘where are you all already serving? Because that’s where I need to move. I work remotely,’ ” Dykes said. “So this is going to open up a lot for economic development, for folks to build homes out into the county, to really open up the ability for us to to promote our area, that we not only have high speed broadband within our city, within our very dense areas, but even in a rural area. If you want to live in a rural setting, you can come and live in that and still have that high speed internet access to access anywhere you want in the world.”

Dykes said having high speed internet access also helps with telehealth doctor appointments and with students working on assignments at home.

BrightRidge applied for this grant in 2022, but the maps weren’t well defined and some areas weren’t considered unserved.

“We were able to challenge that and actually do surveys, and find and get information that proved that these areas were unserved,” Dykes said. “I think that went a long way in helping us receive this grant.”

Tennessee State Representatives Rebecca Alexander and Tim Hicks, Tennessee Senator Rusty Crowe and Washington County Mayor Joe Grandy all advocated to get this grant.

“When we had COVID, there were children that were in cars parked at our elementary schools and trying to get a broadband signal so that they could study virtually,” Alexander said. “And we don’t want that for our community. And this broadband grant will expand to areas in our county that was unserved and we’re just thrilled about it because it’s going to make a huge difference in the lives of the people here.”

Hicks and Alexander said many constituents called them about not having internet or very little at their homes.

“There’s always been a lot of phone calls,” Hicks said. “And we know the need it’s out there. It’s just hard to be able for BrightRidge to just automatically go out into the rural communities. So I think that’s where the state comes in and they see the need and I think that’s where the grants come from to really make this happen through ECD.”

BrightRidge broadband construction should start later this year.

“The official signed document will be sometime in June between us and the state,” Dykes said. “And then we’ll go into the engineering phase and that so we should within a matter of three, four months, start seeing construction phases actually start hopefully sooner.”

They have until the end of 2026 to complete installation. Dykes said it’s their goal to finish sooner, hopefully in mid 2026.

Johnson County’s $2 million will help fund a collaborative effort to purchase and retrofit the former National Guard Armory and convert the 19,000-square-foot building into a community education center, Mayor Larry Potter said. Johnson County High School students will be able to take certification courses that prepare them for workforce jobs in areas ranging from cosmetology and mechanics to virtual health monitoring.

“It just makes sense for the county and the school system to go in together in trying to help the CTE programs expand,” Potter said.

The “Digital Skills, Education and Workforce” (DSEW) program is newly created. The state is distributing $27.9 million total.

Grants in Northeast Tennessee include $1 million for the Greene County Trustee’s office and $980,591 for Northeast State Community College.

But they also include two grants to small businesses in Washington County, including Cloudwise Academy LLC ($346,681) and Kaifa LLC ($320,456).

Cloudwise owner Joe McKenna said the business teaches coding and website development “in the most relatable, high-skill value skills that are being used right now styles.”

The business partners with the Johnson City Chamber of Commerce and offers short-duration courses for people who want more value in their careers, want to start a website or “take high-level skills and be able to put them into play immediately.”

McKenna said the grant will allow the business to offer its courses, which typically run four weeks with a two-hour class twice each week, free of charge. The beginning course ends with the student having created a usable website.

“We’ve built the technology, integrated AI (artificial intelligence) so there’s no skill level that can’t do this,” he said. “Our underlying goal and purpose is to at least get technology and marketing out of the way whether you’re an entrepreneur, you’re a business, you’re someone trying to make your career better.”

The grant funding will also pay for six months of continued AI support, and McKenna said the grant should allow Cloudwise to serve hundreds of students free of charge. More information is at the program’s website, crushingit.ai . It includes a contact box to learn more about the DSEW grant funding.

“It’s a three year grant,” McKenna said. “It ends in December of 2026 and it is for the underserved population. It would be veterans, minorities, people with substance abuse, poverty. Really the idea is these skills are so highly in demand, that no matter what your background, when you know them, you become hirable or even gives you the opportunity to create your own job, your own agency and things like that.”

Cloudwise classes usually range from $350 to $450 and the grant pays for another $360 for the continued use of the technology.

Kaifa LLC will offer a similar business-oriented approach, with its $320,456 grant also going toward student fees, business owner Besiah Fahngon said. She operates Kaifa Events, a venue in North Johnson City.

“We’ll be teaching digital skills to business owners — CRM, Quickbooks and other courses — at the event space,” Fahngon said. She said programming is still being developed and it will be taught by experienced instructors.

The Bristol Public Library is receiving a grant of nearly $100,000 in the DSEW category.

The funds are managed by the state’s “Financial Stimulus Accountability Group.” ECD has now invested more than $715 million to expand the state’s broadband infrastructure, connecting more than 689,000 Tennesseans across 275,000 residential and business locations, according to a news release.

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