{"id":190313,"date":"2015-01-27T04:00:29","date_gmt":"2015-01-26T18:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=190313"},"modified":"2015-01-27T04:00:29","modified_gmt":"2015-01-26T18:00:29","slug":"usda-seek-applicants-rural-broadband-grant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/usda-seek-applicants-rural-broadband-grant\/","title":{"rendered":"USDA seek applicants for rural broadband grant"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_190335\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-190335\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a attid=\"190335\"  href=\"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/USDA-Pagan-pix.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/USDA-Pagan-pix-300x179.jpg\" alt=\"USDA area director Joseph Diego, center, discussed grant opportunities with\u2014from left to right\u2014architect Herman Cabrera, Saipan and Northern Islands Municipal Council chair Tonie Tudela, Northern Islands Mayor Jerome Aldan, and former representative William Torres. (Dennis B. Chan)\" width=\"300\" height=\"179\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-190335\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-190335\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">USDA area director Joseph Diego, center, discussed grant opportunities with\u2014from left to right\u2014architect Herman Cabrera, Saipan and Northern Islands Municipal Council chair Tonie Tudela, Northern Islands Mayor Jerome Aldan, and former representative William Torres. (Dennis B. Chan)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>TIYAN, Guam\u2014USDA Rural Development State Director Chris Kanazawa announced yesterday that USDA is soliciting\u00a0applications for fiscal year 2015 Community Connect Program grants. The program provides\u00a0grants to establish essential broadband services in rural communities where it is currently not\u00a0available.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The Community Connect program serves rural communities where broadband service is least likely to be available, but where it can make a tremendous difference in the quality of life for citizens of the Western Pacific,&#8221; Kanazawa said. &#8220;This grant can assist rural residents tap into the enormous potential of the Internet.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Applicants eligible to apply include state, county, city or township, Native American tribal governments, nonprofits, for profits, and small businesses.\u00a0 The minimum amount of grants awarded will be $100,000; the maximum is $3,000,000.<\/p>\n<p>The\u00a0deadline for applications to be submitted is Feb. 17, 2015.<\/p>\n<p>Last year, USDA announced new\u00a0rules to better target Community Connect grants to areas where they are needed the most.<\/p>\n<p>Community Connect grants can be used to construct, acquire or lease facilities to deploy broadband to community facilities such as schools and public safety locations, as well as residences and businesses in the community.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Community Connect grant can be made available to bring the benefits of broadband, including new educational, business and public health and safety opportunities, to residents living in some of the most remote parts of the Western Pacific,\u201d said Joe Diego, Area Director.<\/p>\n<p>You can access more information on the Community Connect grant at: http:\/\/www.rurdev.usda.gov\/utp_commconnect.html. <em>(USDA)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>TIYAN, Guam\u2014USDA Rural Development State Director Chris Kanazawa announced yesterday that USDA is soliciting\u00a0applications for&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":190335,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[56,55,21,117],"class_list":["post-190313","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","tag-business-3","tag-health-2","tag-life","tag-usda"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190313","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=190313"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190313\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/190335"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=190313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=190313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=190313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}