Upriver residents sent the Skagit Public Utility District No. 1 and county officials a clear message last week — high-speed Internet is needed.

But a lack of funding and limited time to complete a fiber-optic project could leave east county community members without broadband Internet for the time being.

During a two-hour A Working Alliance for Rural Equity (AWARE) meeting at the Concrete Senior Center Thursday, Skagit PUD general manager David Johnson discussed those hurdles and more in front of about 50 residents.

He said the PUD’s initial plan was to use federal grant and county sales tax dollars, along with local matching funds from the town of Concrete and the Upper Skagit Library totaling more than $600,000, on the project.

But after hiring a firm to survey the project’s implementation, PUD officials learned that burying fiberoptic cable from the Janicki site in Hamilton east to Concrete could cost the county an additional $800,000, which PUD officials are looking to make up.

“We’re not going to run Skagit PUD into the ground because of fiber-optics,” Johnson said. “Right now, we’re looking at a real problem between Hamilton and Concrete.”

Johnson said extending cable east to Marblemount would cost an additional $600,000 to $800,000, bringing the total for the project to at least $1.4 million — all of which is currently unfunded.

“There is no money to go to Marblemount at this time,” he said.

A temporary solution could be for Verizon to use a third-party service to allow customers to use its already-existing fiber-optic cable, which runs from Concrete down river. Verizon also currently has DSL capabilities within Concrete.

PUD planner Scott Spahr, who is the project manager for the proposal, said the federal grant deadline for the project is Aug. 21. He said the PUD is currently working to extend that timeline.

“We thought we had a clear route to Concrete until we got into the details,” Spahr said.

At the meeting, some community members voiced their concern over county and PUD officials dragging their heels on the project.

Upper Skagit Library trustee Julie Erickson said the library, which she said is slated to receive approximately $100,000 worth of funds and 10 computers, has already used its own money to put in infrastructure to accommodate broadband access.

Spahr said Monday in an interview that Concrete residents should begin to see high-speed Internet through Verizon within the next few months. If the PUD is able to extend those grants, upriver residents would have a more permanent solution shortly after.

“We’d be riding on Verizon’s facilities and paying a substantial chunk of money to them,” Spahr said. “The long-term solution is to have fiber that we maintain that’s all public.”