County approves internet-related grant

October 30, 2024 by Ben Pounds

At its last meeting, the Anderson County Commission approved receipt of a grant involving educating citizens, especially seniors, about the internet and providing them with devices.

On Oct. 21, the commission approved a contract for grant administration for a $100,000 Broadband Ready Community Grant that the state of Tennessee provided to the county.

The county won’t need to match the grant with any of its own funds.

“For this particular grant, we will be teaching digital literacy skills and digital education, and also be able to provide some low-cost or free digital equipment or devices, as well as possible provision of low-cost internet plans,” County Mayor Terry Frank told The Courier News.

“Our target population is senior adults,” she said. “As more agencies move to online platforms, we want to ensure that seniors have the training and skills they need in order to accomplish tasks such as handling online health care enrollment.

“We will run the program at our Senior Center and possibly other locations,” Frank said.

“Currently, we are seeking proposals from vendors [or] companies who teach digital literacy and education.”

The grant is through the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development.