As the federal government prepares to spend millions of dollars to improve internet access across the country, Park County commissioners hope the Clark area can get an upgrade.

Both commissioners and the area’s telecommunications provider, Nemont, have been exploring ways to secure federal funding for a new fiber network in the area.

Over the last month or so, commissioners worked with Nemont to explore the possibility of seeking a Broadband Infrastructure Program grant from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA).

Nemont Project Manager Richard Hood said his cooperative conceptualized “a pretty big fiber build job in the Clark area … because we’re actively pursuing trying to bring fiber to everybody we possibly can.”

In an email to the county in early June, Hood said the project would make “a very good application” and bring future-proof broadband service to Clark. However, Nemont ultimately determined it would not be possible to complete an application by the NTIA’s Aug. 17 deadline.

“We’ve come to the conclusion there’s just so many unanswered questions surrounding the funding and how it’s to be set up,” Hood told commissioners at their July 6 meeting.

The dollars from the Broadband Infrastructure Program would have actually been awarded to the Park County government and then distributed in a partnership with Nemont — meaning the county would have taken the lead and shared in the responsibilities of administering the project. Meanwhile, Nemont would have had to quickly generate a high-level design and then commit to a rough cost estimate that could potentially underestimate the actual costs, Hood said.

“So the company has to accept that risk and the county, as partners, we would need to accept that risk in total,” he said.

One of the co-op’s lingering questions, Hood added, was whether it would own the finished network.

“If we’re going to put fiber to the premises in Clark, Wyoming, at the end of the day, of course, Nemont would want to own the assets to it,” he told commissioners, “and I don’t know how that melds into your thoughts and your planning.”

It wound up being a moot point, since Nemont determined it wouldn’t be able to complete the work prior to the NTIA’s deadline.

“We’d like to help, we want to do what we can to improve the broadband everywhere we can,” Commission Chairman Lee Livingston said, “but it might seem like the window for this one is too tight to make it work.”

Other funding, however, may be available.

The $288 million worth of funding in the NTIA Broadband Infrastructure Program came from the $2.3 trillion Consolidated Appropriations Act that Congress passed in December. Currently, billions more are being made available for broadband projects through the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan passed in March. Commissioner Lloyd Thiel of Clark said he’s been visiting with Nemont about the possibility of tapping into some of those funds for an upgrade.

Based in Scobey, Montana, Nemont serves a more than 14,000 square mile area that includes parts of northeastern and south-central Montana, northwestern North Dakota and the Clark area in Wyoming.