This commentary is by Roger Allbee of Townshend, a former CEO of Grace Cottage Healthcare and a former secretary of the Vermont Department of Agriculture, Food and Markets.
Bringing new and effective technologies to rural America is not a new challenge. I once asked my late mother about when did electric power come to the small southern Vermont rural town where I grew up.
She answered, “The year was 1938, and they brought one electric line into our house. We had one 15-watt bulb, and I said to your dad, who was farming with his dad, this is awfully bright; we will never need anything brighter.”
She went on to say that they were afraid to put the electricity into the barn, as it might start a fire.
We all know today of the impact that rural electric had in changing things on the farm and in rural communities. It would not have happened without the creation of the federal Rural Electric Administration in 1935. Its purpose was to initiate, formulate, administer and supervise projects for the generation, transmission and distribution of electric energy to rural areas.
It took until the 1960s for some towns in northern Vermont to get power, decades after the rest of America.
Like electrical power, farmers and rural residents in many areas developed their own telephone companies on a mutual or cooperative basis in the early 1900s. Some of us remember party lines and the local telephone exchange.
Bringing broadband to rural Vermont is reminiscent of that past. In the 1990s, when my wife and I moved back to Vermont and the area that I grew up in, we were told that internet service would be available soon. We quickly found out that our only way to have internet service was to go to the local library or to the hospital parking lot with our computer.
Likewise, years later, when I was CEO of our local hospital and health care facility in southern Vermont, even though we did have internet service at the hospital, we lacked the ability to connect with many of the patients in the nearby rural towns where internet service was still lacking. Cell service in the area is still a problem. At the hospital, we did not have cell service until we created our own cell tower.
Vermonters have repeatedly been assured by various Vermont administrations that access for all is being aggressively addressed.
It is encouraging to hear of the formation of communication union districts, which allow two or more towns to join together as a municipal entity for a means of building communication infrastructure together, like the rural electric and telephone cooperatives that existed in the past. There are now about 11 CUDs in Vermont, as towns turn to public options to provide coverage of areas that the private sector has passed over — just as they did early on with electric and telephone service.
With some 61,000 Vermont households estimated to lack internet or have poor service, new options are needed. We also hear of the goal of Elon Musk’s effort with Starlink to launch thousands of small satellites able to transmit fast internet signals down to Earth and the interest by some in our state in this technology.
Helping people connect to technology is always a challenge, especially for an older and rural population like we have in Vermont. As with rural electric and telephone service of the past, institutions and programs are in place to assist with the adaption of these new technologies.
As a student of Vermont’s agricultural history, I am often reminded of the role of the federal, state and county extension services, which were established in 1914 as a way then to increase agricultural productivity, food security, and to address rural livelihoods as well as to be an engine to address economic growth. The county agent, home economist and 4-H leader were looked to as the go-to people in the community. They became agents for change, for innovative ways to introduce new agricultural technologies and other new methods.
It was known that the young people in the community often adopted new ideas before their parents and other community members. The 4-H clubs became one way to help make this education more connected to the countryside and to those that lived there.
Bringing broadband to communities in rural Vermont is more than just a connection. It is also a way to create a community of learning and a way of helping individuals and communities put knowledge to work to stimulate innovation.
While CUDs and service providers are focused on bringing technology to rural locations in our state, there is a need for a community of learning. Perhaps it is again time to reinforce the role and mission of 4-H and other Extension programs in putting this technology to work. It is a way to stimulate innovation in schools, homes, and in business establishments in the community.
As one noted Vermont Extension specialist has said about the role, “We marry technology and social capital to create a true community of learning. … It’s pretty magical.”
