By Melanie Lekocevic
Capital Region Independent Media
COEYMANS — Seventy-four homes in the town now have access to something they’ve been clamoring for for years — high-speed broadband.
The town council cut the ribbon Thursday on the new fiber optic boxes that provide access to internet service from State Telephone.
“A year ago I went to the town supervisor and said I think you’ve got ARPA money you can spend on broadband and there are some areas where I know it is needed badly after talking to some of the residents,” State Telephone Vice President Mark Evans said at the ceremony. “We went through the process and we were granted the money for this project.”
The town received $400,000 in federal American Rescue Plan Act funds that were allocated to municipalities for COVID pandemic relief, and decided to use $200,000 of the funds to bring broadband access to an area of the town that has been lacking it.
The project was bid out earlier this year and State Telephone submitted the lowest bid.
The funding covered the cost of the project, which brought connectivity to the 74 homes on Starr and Bushendorf roads.
“This area probably would not have gotten connectivity given how sparse it is with houses,” Town Supervisor George McHugh said. “We wanted to get connectivity in an area that we knew wouldn’t be an attractive area for State Tel or any of the other providers because that is the hole that we needed to fill with this money.”
With few houses over a large stretch of land, the area was not an attractive option for internet providers. Other areas, where there are more homes and more potential customers, have less difficulty in drawing a provider to install the infrastructure.
“For instance, Lindskoog Road is getting it right now from Mid-Hudson Cable, but that is easy — it is very congested, there are over 50 homes in a 2-mile stretch,” McHugh said. “They will hook that up and run fiber without any incentive. This needed incentivizing.”
High-speed internet access is a necessity in today’s world, particularly in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic that shut down schools and businesses for a time, Evans said.
“We saw after the pandemic, and during the pandemic, just how important fiber is,” Evans said. “When the pandemic hit, we were installing fiber as fast as we could. Our guys were working into the evenings, working on weekends. We hooked up fiber for the students at the schools at their homes for free, and we did it as quickly as we possibly could.”
For students whose homes did not have access, free Wi-Fi was set up in the parking lot of National Bank of Coxsackie in Faith Plaza on Route 9W.
For the Starr and Bushendorf roads expansion project, State Telephone installed four miles of fiber.
“We started in May and we just finished,” Evans said. “The goal was to get it done by October and we did that. We are completely done — everything is wired, everything is spliced, everything is working.”
At press time, 15 homes were hooked up to the service on Starr Road, and 17 on Bushendorf Road.
“And we’ve got more orders pending,” Evans said.
The remaining 42 homes have access and just need to sign up for the service, if they wish. There is no cost to install the equipment or connect, they just pay the standard monthly fee, according to Evans.
“We really appreciate the town working with us on this project,” Evans said. “We know how important it is to get fiber — not just internet but fiber, because fiber is so much faster.”
Joseph Warren, president of State Telephone, thanked the workers, who were on hand, for their efforts.
“It was the employees that made this happen,” Warren said. “It was a big project and it was done in a short amount of time because of their efforts.”
Residents who have had the service turned on say they are very happy with it.
“It’s fantastic. It’s functional and it’s fast,” said Jessica Flach, who lives on Bushendorf Road. “It’s been a true blessing. To be connected with high-speed internet in 2022 and to be able to enjoy meeting with my co-workers on Zoom has been great.”
Starr Road resident Cheryl DiPerna-Gillen, who was connected two days before the ribbon cutting, previously had satellite internet service from HughesNet, and before that, it was dial-up.
“This is very exciting for Starr Road. We are so happy to get this finally,” DiPerna-Gillen said. “It took a long time, but we finally got it and the internet is so fast now. We are so delighted and so happy for George McHugh, the town of Coeymans supervisor, and the board members for making this happen for us. We are just totally delighted.”
