Maryland leaders work to expand Wi-Fi in West Baltimore

By Tashi McQueenAFRO Political Writertmcqueen@afro.comU.S. Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Baltimore City Mayor Brandon M. Scott (D) and Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel spoke on plans to expand internet connectivity in Baltimore on July 22.& Baltimore City Mayor Brandon M. Scott (D) (left); Darcell Graham, interim CEO of Enoch Pratt Free Library; Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel and U.S. Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) announce the expansion of internet access for Marylanders and Americans throughout the country. (AFRO Photo/Tashi McQueen)“Last month when the emergency connectivity fund expired, we were faced with an impossible situation. We had to either turn off the data to those hotspots for over 2,000 families or find the hundreds of thousands of dollars to keep the program running,” said Darcell Graham, interim CEO of Enoch Pratt Free Library (EPFL), during a press conference at the EPFL Walbrook Branch in West Baltimore. “As a library, we knew we could not leave our families disconnected. We found the funding to keep them on, knowing that the program may not be financially sustainable for us in the future.”The Enoch Pratt Free Library currently has about 2,000 hotspots in circulation. According to Meghan McCorkell, Enoch Pratt...