When I heard the federal government had come up with something called the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) the first thing that came to my mind was the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The adjective 'affordable' in ACA halfway made sense, even though it proved to be false but the verb 'rescue' in ARPA seemed out of place, given that we tend to think mission accomplished when someone is rescued.

I don't think anybody has been rescued by ARPA given the way the county has managed the program. There may be those that have received temporary help from the program, but I wouldn't call that being rescued. Those who received rental assistance through ARPA are still in need of rental assistance now that the program has ended. The promise of low-cost broadband by the county will result in the same scenario. Once the money runs out, those few who enjoyed discounted broadband compliments of the county will be back to where they are now, and the service providers will have made off with a sizable chunk of the $15M, all in the spirit of rescuing those in Alachua County who live in a broadband desert.