There’s good news and bad news is Lake County. The bad news is that they still haven’t received ARRA broadband funding. The good news is that they’re still in the hopper.
According to the Lake County News-Chronicle, they remain optimistic…
“I don’t look at it as a rejection,” said Paul Bergman, Lake County commissioner. “There’s still money left. Somebody has to be the last project funded.”
The quick description of their project is…
The county broadband project is expected to cost $70 million and would bring service to every home in Lake and parts of St. Louis County currently served with electric service. The “last-mile” project, meaning service to homes from a central system, is what much of the federal money is tied to.
If the ARRA funding doesn’t work out, municipal financing through revenue bonds may be an option. As the article points out, there will be some improvements in the areas through another ARRA-funded project…
The Northeast Service Cooperative is in the engineering phase of the project to bring broadband to agencies such as medical facilities, counties and schools throughout northeastern Minnesota.
But we keep our fingers crossed for Lake County and the other Minnesota projects waiting to hear the good word.
