CMCC Board Vacancies:

There are currently two vacancies on the CMCC Board of Directors. The Board meets once a month. If you are interested in volunteering for one of the positions, or finding out more about serving on the Board, please contact Info@Colonymtcc.org. The next Board meeting is on Saturday, August 23 at 10:00 am. Everyone is welcome to attend (contact Info@Colonymtcc.org for the meeting location).

Fiber Internet Update:

Fiber Internet is coming to Colony Mountain! The Port of Skagit County received several grants to bring fiber internet to unserved and underserved rural residences and our area is included in their “Bow Hill” project. The construction contract has been awarded and the contractor has started work. It will be a few weeks before they get to Colony Mountain.

The project is divided into two parts – first the contractor will install the “backbone” fiber cable in the streets (public rights-of-way and private road easements). The installation will be overhead where the fiber cable can share space on the power poles, and underground in the remaining locations. The second phase will install the service connection from the street to the house. The grant funds will cover the individual service costs for most homeowners. More on that below…

The majority of the fiber cable installation will be in County roads, where the Port has legal access for construction and has obtained a permit from the County for the underground installations. There are a number of private side roads, including several in our community, where the Port needs permission to use the existing utility easements for the fiber construction. For CMCC, this means that the Board of Directors will need to grant the Port permission to use the CMCC road and utility easements for Park Place, Schultz Lane, Toad Lane, Linda Lane, Pond Lane, Mountain Drive, and Colony Mountain Lane.

The fiber cable construction methods to be used on the CMCC side roads will be as follows (subject to change):

Colony Mountain Drive – Overhead and underground
Park Place – Overhead
Schultz Lane – Overhead and underground
Toad Lane – Overhead and underground
Linda Lane – Underground
Pond Lane – Underground
Mountain Drive – Overhead and underground
Colony Mountain Lane – Overhead (for services only)

As mentioned above, the grant funding will also cover the costs for the service connection from the main fiber cable to the house for most CMCC residents. If you are eligible, you will receive a letter in the next few weeks from Astound Broadband (the Port’s service provider partner on this project) with information on how to sign up for the connection to your house and available service plans.  Note: you are not required to sign up for internet service to get the connection installed to your house.

The service connection grants will be first come – first served until the grant funds run out. The grant will cover 100% of the service construction costs through December 2025, and then 90% through March 2026. So, watch for the letter from Astound and respond promptly!

If you have questions, email Info@Colonymtcc.org… The Port staff working on this project have asked to be invited to our upcoming annual meeting to answer questions about the project, but if you wait until after the meeting to sign up you may miss out on the end of year service construction grant funding.