Alna is pursuing another ConnectME Authority grant. Third Selectman Doug Baston said it could help bring high-speed internet access to Route 218 from Alna General Store to the Wiscasset line.

"Tidewater (Telecom) and I both think we are well-positioned to get this grant, if we act quickly and have enough support/demand," Baston wrote residents in an email Friday afternoon.

In a phone interview Friday, ConnectME Director Heather Johnson said the Authority has $150,000 to give out for infrastructure. An award to Upper Valley Economic Council in Aroostook County fell through for lack of a match after a six-month extension, Johnson said. She said the next grant round wouldn't have awarded the funds until March, and the Authority wanted to put the money to work sooner on a project or projects. So it is holding an interim round with applications due Dec. 7 and possible decisions when the board meets Dec. 14, she said.

"We don't usually work that fast."

The state agency announced the round Monday, Oct. 29; by mid-afternoon Friday, the Authority had received no applications but a lot of interest, Johnson said.

Requests are usually in the $100,000 range, so one project and part of another might win funding, Johnson continued. "We'll see what we get for projects and then make that decision."

Baston's email tells residents, letters of support are critical to the application. He did not yet know what the letters should say, but wants to hear from people so he can work with them directly, it continues. According to the email, for Spectrum customers, a Tidewater project "would create a competing and potentially lower-cost option"; and everyone else on the stretch would have an option they don't now have from Tidewater, Baston wrote.

ConnectME has supported requests from Alna before. In August 2017, the town declined $80,951 after learning it already had service in the areas sought. And in 2012, the town won $122,000 to help get high speed internet access to West Alna, Cross and Lothrop roads.

Baston noted the new grant round Nov. 2. “So fingers crossed, we might get something,” he told fellow selectmen and board meeting-goers at the town office. He added, Dresden might also be interested in a Tidewater project.

Branden Perreault chairs Dresden's selectmen-appointed cable committee that has looked at expanding television and high-speed internet access. He said Monday, earlier this year Charter, which uses the brand Spectrum, proposed funding $90,950 of a $324,925 project. The town, possibly with help from ConnectME, would have to fund the rest, he said. "The town wasn't ready to move forward," but has wanted to get more quotes to see what it would have to spend and how to get the most for its money, Perreault said.

He said Bowdoinham has been working with Tidewater parent company Lincolnville Communications to expand there; and that, Perreault said, would mean coming though Dresden. The Dresden committee planned to meet later Monday with Lincolnville, he said. "We thought it prudent to get whatever we can for quotes on cost to build out, to establish where they are building out and see what they can offer." Dresden will work with both providers to see how to get "the most bang for our buck" in helping its unserved and underserved areas get high-speed internet and television service, he said.

Perreault did not yet know if Dresden will apply in ConnectME’s December round. If it did apply, he said, “Even if we didn't receive funding, I think it would be a good exercise” that might help in preparing future applications, he said.