With the current focus on broadband, the State of New York has kicked off an ambitious project to gather data regarding broadband availability.   One key component of this project is to solicit the voice of residents in each County.  The collection of this data from households can be found at the internet site at www.empirestatebroadband.com.  This short survey will help NYS understand how people utilize, or would like to utilize broadband in their home or business.

County Administrator, Nonie Flynn, notes that “The need for rural broadband has never been more apparent than it is now and the timing of this Project couldn’t be better.   Our recent USDA funding has been essential for turning our vision into a reality in these times of extra tight budgets and this additional data can be used by us to apply for more grants.  Yates County currently keeps a running file of residents and businesses that are unserved or underserved and hopefully with this additional data from the survey, we can add to our list.  I encourage our community members to take a few minutes and fill in the survey.” 

The vision of the Yates County Legislature is that every premise in the County has access to affordable, reliable, high-speed internet.  The County is moving towards this vision by applying for more grant monies.

The County’s current ReConnect Grant broadband project will soon move into a bid process to secure the Construction firm who will do the actual build.   The goal is to start construction this Fall.  Construction will proceed in phases and once those are determined, residents will be able to track status and progress on the County’s ReConnect internet site at yatesconnect.org.

Questions or more information can be obtained through the project office via [email protected].