www.montereycountynow.com APRIL 30-MAY 6, 2026 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY 17 In 2020, a photo captured two girls sitting on the ground outside a Taco Bell in East Salinas, laptops out, connected to the restaurant’s free Wi-Fi. The image went viral, a reflection of the stark digital divide that was laid bare during the pandemic. California lawmakers could not look away, and Senate Bill 156 was signed into law in 2021, deploying billions of dollars for broadband infrastructure. A group of 40 rural counties, already connected as Rural County Representatives of California, formed a new joint powers authority, the Golden State Connect Authority, to try to get in on some of that funding to build needed infrastructure. On Thursday, April 30, the group will celebrate its first groundbreaking in Glenn County, north of Sacramento, an $11 million project installing about 40 miles of fiber for highspeed internet service expected to go live by the end of the year. It’s the first project for the JPA, which secured public funding then private investment, making it a $300 million entity. “Now here we are, and we’re going to be doing actual construction,” says President/CEO Patrick Blacklock. “It’s a demonstrable measure of success.” Monterey County Supervisor Chris Lopez is chair of the Golden State Connect Authority, and plans to be in Glenn County on April 30 to celebrate. “It’s an incredible feat, something I’ve been honored to lead,” Lopez says. “It’s just crazy that I can’t bring it home.” He’s still got that photo of the two girls outside the Taco Bell on his mind, along with fresh frustration that the California Public Utilities Commission rejected an application (twice) from the South Salinas Valley Broadband Authority—with support from the Golden State Connect Authority—for funding to kickstart a high-speed fiber project for the entire Salinas Valley. (The project would cost roughly $50 million all told.) What irks Lopez is not that projects in rural Glenn and Calaveras counties and elsewhere got funding—it’s a statewide initiative—but that a private utility project being built by Surfnet secured $3.3 million from the CPUC to serve 182 unserved households, extending about 10 miles up into the hills near Chualar, and to farms on the periphery of town. Monterey County Supervisor Luis Alejo, speaking on Jan. 16 during a meeting of the state’s Middle-Mile Advisory Committee, had questions about why the Surfnet project got the nod, but not the bigger public project. “Our county received a relatively small grant that was focused on expanding broadband to our cannabis nurseries and an affluent community nearby, but the disadvantaged communities in South County were passed up once again,” Alejo said. “It would go against everything that we’ve been talking about, about equity and extending broadband to disadvantaged communities.” They are still waiting. Meanwhile, Ken Nye, the COO of Surfnet, is enthusiastic about the Chualar-area project, which he says will be breaking ground soon. “Golden State Connect Authority and South Salinas Valley Broadband Authority are just crying over sour grapes,” Nye says. “We’re not down there trying to say our [project] is better than theirs. We saw the need, we put in an application and the CPUC seems to agree with us.” Surfnet’s plans will start at $15/month and go up to $119. Nye sees a market and a need, and believes private last-mile infrastructure like this is the way to go—he’s unconvinced that the Surfnets or AT&Ts or Verizons of the world would willingly tap Golden State Connect Authority’s public fiber to offer plans. “It’s a great idea but in practicality, you are not going to attract any big carriers,” he says. The company applied for the CPUC grant with support from the California Broadband Alliance, Western Growers Association and Monterey Bay Economic Partnership. Dennis Donohue weighed in with support on behalf of the Western Growers Association. Now, as mayor of Salinas, he says he’d embrace Lopez’s vision for a public project connecting the entire valley. “Broadband in California has been the technological equivalent of watching paint dry,” Donohue says. “Chris [Lopez] is trying to think holistically, and I think that’s the right approach.” Sara Rubin is the Weekly’s editor. Reach her at sara@montereycountynow.com. Missed Connection Big broadband projects are breaking ground in California, but not here. By Sara Rubin MAGIC SPELL…In the ocean, Squid hears some crazy things. There was the time Sunny the Sea Star said it was too salty (turned out Sunny was drinking margaritas). Or when Tina the Tuna challenged Squid to a race—Squid might be one of the fastest invertebrates, but Squid doesn’t even have fins. Squid has grown used to Trump Administration officials saying some crazy things, but even Squid was startled to see that Hung Cao could make it all the way to the role of Acting Secretary of the Navy, given that Cao literally believes in witches. Cao first came to Squid’s attention in 2024 when he was running for governor of Virginia (he lost). Late-night TV host John Oliver’s team turned up footage of Cao describing Squid’s backyard: “There’s a place in Monterey, California called Lovers Point. The original name was Lovers of Christ Point, but now it’s become, they took out the ‘Christ,’ it’s Lovers Point and it’s really, Monterey is a very dark place now, with a lot of witchcraft and the Wiccan community has really taken over,” said Cao, who had studied physics at the Naval Postgraduate School. Where to begin? First, it was once called Lovers of Jesus, not Lovers of Christ, and it’s in Pacific Grove, not Monterey, but facts matter little to this cohort of leaders. Squid wishes it was as simple as waving a magic tentacle to get them to see straight, but that seems unlikely—magic isn’t real. WINE DOWN…Believe it or not, wine pairs nicely with shrimp-flavored popcorn. So Squid appreciates all the wineries in Monterey County. Squid shouldn’t have been surprised—but was—to find that someone found a way to pair wine with divisive politics. Squid’s colleague received a press release celebrating medals awarded to Republican Red Winery at the “prestigious” Monterey International Wine Competition. The Platinum medal for the winery’s America 250 Sparkling Wine beat out Barefoot Bubbly, a sub- $10 bottle and the only competitor in the category. Republican Red’s MAHA Cabernet Franc picked up gold—against zero competition. That’s what winning looks like, Barefoot. Not surprisingly, the press release uses words such as “heritage,” “tradition,” “purity” and (several times) “values.” How does a Cab Franc reflect “a philosophy rooted in heritage, authenticity and intentional living”? Squid needs a glass of wine to make sense of it all. Squid has no doubt about the wine’s quality—the competition results say it all. Nor, given the buzzwords, does Squid challenge the winery’s commitment to “embracing meaning and identity.” With what the party has recently demonstrated, Squid wonders if MAHA might come to stand for Make America Hate Again. THE LOCAL SPIN SQUID FRY THE MISSION OF MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY IS TO INSPIRE INDEPENDENT THINKING AND CONSCIOUS ACTION, ETC. “It’s just crazy that I can’t bring it home.” SEND SQUID A TIP: squid@montereycountynow.com
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