Terms Used In Vermont Statutes Title 30 Sec. 8085

  • Board: means the Vermont Community Broadband Board. See
  • broadband: means a mass-market retail service by wire or radio in Vermont that provides the capability to transmit data to and receive data from all or substantially all Internet endpoints, including any capabilities that are incidental to and enable the operation of the communications service, but excluding dial-up Internet access service. See
  • Equitable: Pertaining to civil suits in "equity" rather than in "law." In English legal history, the courts of "law" could order the payment of damages and could afford no other remedy. See damages. A separate court of "equity" could order someone to do something or to cease to do something. See, e.g., injunction. In American jurisprudence, the federal courts have both legal and equitable power, but the distinction is still an important one. For example, a trial by jury is normally available in "law" cases but not in "equity" cases. Source: U.S. Courts
  • road: shall include bridges thereon and their approaches. See
  • Underserved: means a location that only has access to broadband service capable of speeds of at least 4 Mbps download and 1 Mbps upload but less than 25 Mbps download and 3 Mbps upload. See
  • Universal service plan: means a plan for providing each unserved and underserved location in a communications union district or in a municipality that was not part of a communications union district prior to June 1, 2021 access to broadband service capable of speeds of at least 100 Mbps download and 100 Mbps upload. See
  • Unserved: means a location that only has access to broadband capable of speeds of less than 4 Mbps download and 1 Mbps upload. See

§ 8085. Broadband Preconstruction Grant Program

(a) There is established the Community Broadband Preconstruction Grant Program to be administered by the Board. The purpose of the Program is to provide grants to communications union districts for preconstruction costs related to broadband projects that are part of a universal service plan.

(b) As used in this section, “preconstruction costs” include expenses for feasibility studies, business planning, pole data surveys, engineering and design, and make-ready work associated with the construction of broadband networks, including consultant, legal, and administrative expenses, and any other costs deemed appropriate by the Board.

(c) To ensure an equitable distribution of funds under this Program and to encourage collaborative work among communications union districts, grant awards shall be scalable and shall be commensurate with the size of a broadband project as determined by the project’s service area, road mileage, the number of unserved or underserved locations, or any other metric deemed appropriate by the Board. In addition, the Board may develop standards for the disbursement of grant funds in a manner that both supports the efficient and timely use of funds and also ensures accountability. (Added 2021, No. 71, § 2, eff. June 8, 2021.)