District Attorney Chris Nevils announced good news for Winn’s underserved rural internet users at Monday’s Police Jury meeting when he said a grant should make broadband service available to virtually all households here, with work beginning by spring of 2025.

His excitement was evident in his presentation.  While improved internet accessibility in rural Winn has been discussed for years, monies have been used up by the time local requests were made.  He termed this “early disappointment” that left many rural users with few options other than slower satellite internet.

He noted that broadband is defined as service with a minimum of 100 megabits per second download capacity and 20 megabits upload.  Without the broadband, most of the four or five providers currently serving Winn cannot match those levels.

The “Good News” came, Nevils said, after he got together with Connect.La.gov, a state government entity.  He emphasized to them that isolated Winn Parish is in desperate need of reliable internet.  While the first round of funding called GUMBO 1 has been depleted, the next is GUMBO 2 and Winn will be a “full grantee,” meaning the funding has been promised with no local match with no grant applications, he said.  This is federal funding processed through the state.

Nevils told the lawmakers that contracts should be signed by October “and trucks should be rolling by the first quarter of next year to put out more fiber optics.”  The target of the GUMBO program is provision of broadband access to households.  He added that there will also be grant applications available for businesses.

“I’m excited about this.”