IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Lindsi Mailler
lmailler@easthamptpnma.gov
Easthampton Awarded $250,00.00 for Community Compact Cabinet’s Municipal Fiber Grant
Easthampton, MA - The City of Easthampton has been awarded a $250,000 grant in the inaugural round of the Community Compact Cabinet’s (CCC) Municipal Fiber grant program. The purpose is to develop a failover protection path that will increase the security and resilience of the City’s municipal fiber infrastructure.
The project will create increases in the availability of public information on secure website platforms, increased efficiency and speed of backups for City-owned computers and systems, increased access by residents to municipal services and personal data (e.g., tax payments, document filings), and more efficient monitoring of secure physical locations and critical infrastructure (e.g., DPW, City Hall, Public Safety Complex).
“The pandemic firmly confirmed what we suspected to be true,” Mayor LaChapelle stated, “our cybersecurity and resilience was subpar, leaving resident services and city operations vulnerable. This grant addresses many gaps.”
The awards ceremony was held on June 2nd in Taunton, MA, where Lieutenant Governor Karyn Polito presented the Municipal Fiber grant to Easthampton IT Director Dr. Karin M. Camihort.
“The grant will allow the City to strengthen its network resilience by building new fiber connectivity. With the growing number of cybersecurity attacks, it is imperative for Easthampton to develop an enterprise approach to its network monitoring, backup, and recovery practices. We are grateful to the entire Baker-Polito Administration for its leadership creating this program and for funding this important project.” stated Easthampton IT Director, Dr. Karin M. Camihort.
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