Cajun Broadband in St. Mary Parish

Parish President David Hanagriff praised the progress toward providing high-speed broadband to underserved areas of the parish using the state's Granting Unserved Municipalities Broadband Opportunities program, known as GUMBO.

The program began a year ago with a $90 million boost from the federal government. The St. Mary Parish government, working with private provider Cajun Broadband, received two grants totaling about $960,000 to provide high-speed data service to residents in Sorrel and the Irish Bend Road area.

The service will be offered via fiber optics, which can generally offer faster upload and download speeds.

"I don't have fiber at my house," Hanagriff said. "I'm going to be jealous."

The work in St. Mary will begin in February and will be finished in May, Hanagriff said.

Councilman the Rev. Craig Mathews, who represents District 1 in western St. Mary, said the lack of broadband service in some areas has been evident since at least 2008.

That's bad for businesses that would find high-speed data useful as well as for students, he said.

"This has been a very hot topic, a very sore subject for residents of District 1 and other areas of St. Mary," Mathews said.

Using GUMBO grants to improve broadband service will require funding from the St. Mary Parish government, Mathews said. But "the benefits will yield far more than that investment."

A second round of GUMBO funding will go out in September.

St. Blanc received more praise from parish officials for his work to make the broadband projects happen. In turn, LeBlanc thanked Mathews and Hanagriff for their advocacy.

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