GREENFIELD — The internet service provider GCET was awarded more than $1.2 million in federal grant funding administered through the Massachusetts Broadband Institute (MBI) to install broadband in “underserved” parts of the city and to make The Weldon apartments compatible with its internet services.

GCET, which stands for Greenfield Community Energy and Technology, announced receipt of the funds at its meeting last week, following discussions on roughly $305,000 in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds that Mayor Ginny Desorgher pulled from the organization’s budget in September.

The internet provider was awarded more than $750,000 in Gap Networks Grant funds to build out broadband internet in regions of the city that lack the service requirements necessary for high-speed internet over the course of roughly two years, General Manager John Lunt said. He said GCET was one of only four internet providers in the state, alongside Verizon, Comcast and Charter, to be awarded a comparable grant through MBI.

“We will essentially be building that out, some of it up in the north of Greenfield, some of it in the south. It really is just areas that don’t have coverage,” Lunt said. “It’s part of the digital equity initiative from the state to make sure that everyone that possibly can has access to broadband.”

The internet provider also received roughly $500,000 in Residential Retrofit grant funds, administered through MBI, to help equip large apartment buildings with the infrastructure necessary for high-speed internet. Since this process can be expensive and time-consuming, Lunt said GCET will use the funds to equip the High Street apartment building, The Weldon, with internet service.

“We will provide fiber to every unit in The Weldon. The Weldon is 100% low to moderate income and it’s also senior housing, so we thought that was the perfect example of exactly the kinds of people that we wanted to help with this grant,” Lunt said. “There are 105 units at The Weldon that we’ll be able to get to and the Gap Networks Grant will help us reach a good number of people … who don’t have access to internet or people who have very slow internet.”

Although Lunt said GCET is grateful to MBI for the grants, he noted that the provider still lacks a significant portion of the funds needed for “make-ready” — the modification or replacement of a utility pole, or of lines or equipment on the utility pole, to accommodate additional facilities — through the North Build.

At last month’s City Council meeting, GCET officials aired their concerns after Desorgher pulled roughly $305,000 in ARPA funds from the provider’s capital account — funds that Lunt said had already been “allocated and encumbered” to GCET. Lunt said the provider formerly had $411,926 in ARPA funds and after the reduction, was left with $106,875 as of Tuesday.

At that meeting, Desorgher said there were no set-in-stone plans for alternate uses of the ARPA money, but that in her estimation, completion of the North Build should only cost about $180,000. The mayor also spoke to her administration’s concerns over how the funds were spent.

“There’s a lot of make-ready work that needed to be done down that end of town. From what I was looking at, most of that was completed,” Desorgher said at the Sept. 18 City Council meeting. “I’ve been reviewing what we spent on the licenses for three separate locations down there. The hut is in there [and] it looks like it’s just about ready to go. In my estimation … $180,000 should be enough for that part of town to be completed, and if not, I just need better and clearer explanations.”

Although Desorgher’s Chief of Staff Erin Anhalt announced in a written statement published Sept. 19 that she had restored roughly $56,000 back into GCET’s capital account, Lunt said Tuesday that the internet provider had still not seen those funds. Lunt noted that ARPA funds must be allocated toward a fixed project by Dec. 31, and after that, cannot be moved.

“That money was an important part of a longer-term plan to pay off old make-ready and new make-ready costs,” Lunt said. “The mayor said at the [City Council] meeting that she planned to return $56,000 primarily to help with continuing work on the North Build, and I believe her. That does leave about a quarter of a million dollars that is money that GCET really needs. She has said that she is open to returning that to us — if she wants to ask us questions, we’re happy to do that.”

In an interview Thursday, Desorgher said she was doing her “due diligence” in oversight. She referenced a presentation GCET delivered to then-Mayor Roxann Wedegartner in 2021 when the provider initially made its case for the total $1,035,000 in ARPA funding that Wedegartner ultimately promised to the internet service provider. Desorgher noted that none of the $305,000 in ARPA money that was reduced from GCET’s account had been spent.

Between fiscal years 2021 and 2023, GCET initially claimed that the ARPA funding, which Desorgher said was first paid out in the summer of 2021, could provide coverage to more than 97% of the city, connecting more than 1,500 homes on more than 52 streets in north and south Greenfield as well as downtown. Desorgher also referenced a list of Lunt’s responses to her questions regarding GCET’s progress, in which he wrote that the most recent area served by GCET was Deerfield Street in 2021.

“They said with this $1 million they would be able to do this within 18 to 24 months — it’s been over three years, and not one of those streets is connected yet,” Desorgher said. “My job is oversight. I want [GCET] to succeed and I want this to happen, but if I gave somebody $1 million to pave the street in ’21 and now it’s ’24 and the street wasn’t paved, I’d have to ask what happened to the million.”

Anthony Cammalleri can be reached at acammalleri@recorder.com or 413-930-4429.