

He's lived in the area for about a decade, the entirety of which he's been hoping for better internet. Poor connection isn't new for Youngerman.
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"It'd be nice if they could run it out here," he said of Comcast's plans to install broadband infrastructure. In some cases, the children had to miss entire days of school.

And with two computers competing for connection, the device crashed constantly. Without access to broadband, the family had to rely on the single hotspot Frederick County Public Schools provided. The children were in second and third grades this past year, when schools were largely closed to in-person learning.

Joey Youngerman, who lives just up the road from the fire station, has an 8-year-old and 11-year-old. An estimate showed the Rocky Ridge broadband project would provide access for 135 homes, but Maginnis said he's unsure how many would buy it. There are approximately 3,000 unserved homes in the county, according to the needs study. "If there was an easy solution to this, we would've already done it," Maginnis said.

Internet has been shoddy in Rocky Ridge for as long as residents can remember, though Maginnis said the county has taken the steps necessary to remedy this. The company estimated it would cost roughly $21 million to bring broadband to the three regions. Other unserved areas included locations north of Catoctin Mountain Park, the southern border of the county - including, and just east of, Tuscarora - and the northeastern border of the county, from around Woodsboro up through Emmitsburg. The study, published in September 2020, identified Rocky Ridge as an "unserved" area, meaning it lacks nearby infrastructure for broadband to reach homes. to assess where needs persist and how best to plug in the disconnected. The Rocky Ridge project is the first expansion in broadband access in Frederick County since county government hired the Columbia Telecommunications Corp. The Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development announced funding for the project in July, but as of Monday, Comcast and county officials still had to finalize various agreements and permitting and engineering plans to move the project forward. Funding will be finalized along with project contracts, according to Nick Hetrick, chief information security officer for the county. More than $200,000 in state grant money will be put toward the project's estimated $335,000 total, and either Comcast or Frederick County will pay the remaining balance. "I thought, 'Thank God, something's coming this way,'" Hurley said.įrederick County's current goal is to finish building around July, but David Maginnis, chief information officer for the county's Interagency Information Technology Division, called the timeline more of a wishlist. to construct the cables and foundations for offering the service to residents. Rocky Ridge, however, may have access to broadband connection by the end of 2022 - the deadline for Comcast Corp.
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The disconnect persists because Rocky Ridge, located 30 minutes northeast of Frederick, lacks the infrastructure for broadband - the wireless connection needed for streaming TV and, more importantly, working at home or connecting children to reliable internet for online schooling. While the internet connection doesn't necessarily impact the volunteer fire company's operational duties like responding to emergencies, Hurley said, it's been so poor recently that personnel have had to fill out medical reports at home.
