The ConnectME Authority’s board has voted  to fund Alna’s and Tidewater Telecom’s joint grant request for $92,500 to aid broadband access and internet speed. ConnectME’s website carried a live feed of Friday afternoon’s meeting.

Reached by phone, Alna Second Selectman Doug Baston, who worked with Tidewater on the effort, said he was pleased, and he was surprised ConnectME voted just weeks after applications closed. He was thinking it would be later in the summer. He didn’t know government could work that fast, he said.

Now the work begins of seeing if residents who showed interest will decide to get the service so Tidewater will do the project, Baston added.

“I want to thank all the citizens who went out and drummed up petition signatures to support the grant,” Baston  said. He later announced the win and congratulated the town in a town email.

One of Tidewater’s fellow Lincolnville Communications members, LCI, got one of Friday’s other infrastructure grant nods. That one was for $90,000. According to information ConnectME provided, the project will serve Bowdoinham along the Richmond town line.

ConnectME Director Peggy Schaffer told the board the Tidewater-Alna and LCI-Bowdoinham proposals “are interesting, to some extent, because Tidewater has made clear they’re building this network in a way they can expand into towns around there. So they really have thought through ... what their next steps are.”

In a single vote, the board approved $642,500 in infrastructure funding across four grants, after getting seven requests that totaled $925,375. The other winning proposals involved Otelco and Alton, with a $260,000 request, and Premium Choice and Cambridge, seeking $200,000.

Alna voters June 12 agreed to put $18,500 in cable franchise fees into the $185,000 project serving an estimated 130 Alna homes. Tidewater’s share is $74,000.

In a phone interview Friday, LCI Marketing and Sales Director Alan Hinsey congratulated Alna and Bowdoinham for their hard work. Community support is what makes the difference with ConnectME, he said.

Next, Tidewater will market the service and hopes to have at least 65 packages presold before starting the project. He said about 70 percent of the 130 homes showed support for the project. That’s a very good showing, he said. The company already has about a dozen applications, he added. Work could start this fall and, under ConnectME’s terms, must be done in a year, he said.

“The clock starts today,” Hinsey said.

Alna’s past ConnectME pursuits have had varied outcomes. Last December, an Alna-Tidewater proposal lost in a speed round. In August 2017, the town declined $80,951 in funding 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.