LOCAL NEWS — According to Mayor Bonnie Lewis, two new roads have been added to the fiber expansion project funded by a federal grant from the CARES Act. Goodbranch Road and Goosebranch Road have been added to the project allowing an additional 162 Moore County homes and businesses to connect to Monster Broadband’s fiber Internet network.

The $192,330 grant will be issued to Metro Moore County as part of the Local Government Allocations portion of the CARES Act monies. This grant money is in addition to the $1.1 million grant that Monster recently received to add 26 new miles of fiber Internet coverage inside Moore County. (To read our full coverage of that grant, click here.)

“We had to make sure our plan for the CARES Act funds was not duplicated with any other requests through the PATRIOT Act or other sources of funding,” explained Mayor Lewis. “Because most all of our PPE and employee expenses were met through other sources we decided to apply for additional broadband coverage in the county. Monster Broadband had already applied for and received their CARES Act grant ($1.1M) paid to businesses to expand coverage. We decided to use our allocation to pick up where their grant stopped.”

All hands on deck for the December 15 deadline

The deadline for both projects is December 15 and the Monster team is working overtime to get the work done including hiring additional contractors.

“This is really an all hands on deck situation,” says Monster Broadband co-owner Charles “Boo” Johnston. “We are working day and night to get the project up and running — not only to meet the deadline but also because we realize that quality Internet is now more important than ever with so many Moore County citizens working and attending school from home. We really appreciate the public’s patience.”

As a public utility, Monster works along Moore County roads in the right of way. Johnston says that even though he knows it’s disruptive, he instructing his crews to do everything possible to put things back exactly as they found them — though that often takes a little time.

Johnston and Steve Baker, two MCHS class of 1990 graduates, launched Monster Broadband in 2009. Last year they launched their first fiber network in the Ridgeville subdivision along Tims Ford Lake. Since then, they’ve brought fiber speeds of up to 250 megabytes per second to over 500 homes in both Tennessee and Texas, where Baker now lives.

Citizens who live along Goodbranch and Goosebranch can contact Monster Broadband via email at [email protected] to pre-order the service. Once they have your name, address, and a phone number, they will contact you as soon as your home is install ready, Johnston says.

Click here to like the Monster Broadband Facebook page and stay updated. •

{The Lynchburg Times is the only independently owned and operated newspaper in Lynchburg. We cover Metro Moore County government, Jack Daniel’s Distillery, Nearest Green Distillery, Tims Ford State Park, Motlow State Community College, Moore County High School, Moore County Middle School, Lynchburg Elementary, Raider Sports, plus regional and state news.}