According to the Kanabec County Times…
The feasibility study for the Kanabec Broadband Initiative is a go, after they received word from the Blandin Foundation that they will supply matching grant funds.
According to Beth Thorp, Mora’s Community Development Planner, on Jan. 31 the broadband initiative had $27,500 committed in matching funds from local sources, including a $15,000 grant from the Initiative Foundation.
While the Blandin grant would give the broadband initiative $55,000, it would still leave them short of their $80,000 goal.
They are still waiting to hear on a $10,000 AgStar grant.
Kanabec County has been working with the Blandin Foundation, through broadband consultant Bill Coleman for several months now assessing and building broadband interest with the leaders. Earlier this month, the local leaders had an opportunity to connect with leaders in other communities that are looking at deploying broadband. Again the Kanabec County Times reports…
On Feb. 2, several key community leaders met in the FirstLight Health System board room to connect via video conferencing with leaders from St. Louis County, Sibley County, Wadena County and Cloquet Valley to discuss broadband efforts.
They also provided nice snippets on progress in other areas. Here’s a recap that borrows heavily from the original article:
They [Sibley County] are currently in the process of getting the cities and county into bonding by the end of March. This summer, plans are to start installing fiber to every home in the county. “It’s a two-year build,” said Erickson. “We are right about there. Next summer everything will be complete if it all goes right. The Blandin Foundation has been very helpful.”
…
Cloquet Valley has completed a grassroots market analysis and discovered the analysis shows several would pay for Internet service.
Wadena County is in the very first steps.
It’s nice to add another county to the list of counties thinking about and/or working towards broadband. Helps the entire state reach the border to border broadband goal.