Town Manager Colin Loiselle announced today that the Tyngsborough IT Department has been awarded two state grants totaling $256,000 in the first month of Fiscal Year 2025.

The first grant is $156,741 to extend the Town's municipal fiber network across the bridge to the new clubhouse on the Sherburne Ave Open Space Parcel and the school campus on Norris Road. Prior phases of this work saw the fiber network expanded to all municipal buildings on the west side of the bridge. Having our fiber network reach all municipal buildings is critical to ensuring continuity of services and the fast and efficient delivery of services. The work under this grant will commence this fall.

The second grant is $99,000 to help the Town develop and implement a Cyber Security Incident Response Plan. In the increasingly dangerous cyber security environment with rapidly growing attempts to compromise municipal government networks, this type of plan will ensure the Town is prepared to respond and protect vulnerable data in a worst-case-scenario. Funding for this purpose was originally included in the IT Department's Fy25 budget request but was not included in the final recommended budget presented to Town Meeting because we were confident this funding would be available through state grants. Work under this grant will commence this fall and be completed by June 2025.

To date, the Town of Tyngsborough has received nearly $750,000 in grants for fiscal year 2025 with only one month down. Town staff work diligently to pursue and receive external grants to complete critical projects while balancing the Town's limited financial resources.