Last week Senator Franken’s staff were on a tour of Minnesota to see what’s important to their constituency. In Park Rapids they heard about the need for better broadband and cell coverage. I’m going to paste info from the Park Rapids Enterprise related to the broadband discussion because I think they summed up the discussion so well:
State Rep. Brita Sailer, DFL-Park Rapids attended the meeting and said broadband coverage is a huge issue in this area.
“There are too many areas that are the last mile and if it doesn’t meet their economic plan, they won’t go there,” Sailer said.
It’s an economic issue because some people won’t buy property if they can’t have broadband service like they can get elsewhere, she said.
“This is a big, big deal. It’s public safety; it’s economic development; it’s making sure we’re not left behind,” she said.
Hubbard County Sheriff Frank Homer said that beyond broadband coverage, cell phone and radio coverage is a concern for law enforcement. The state is talking about going to a new system, he said.
“A lot of us in law enforcement are having problems with communication via the cell phone,” Homer said.
At some point, the department would like to streamline communication so everyone has cell phones rather than squad radios and pagers. The problem is coverage.
It seems to me that there are plenty of opportunities for the Park Rapids area to engage in collaborative planning and pursue some stimulus funding. It is certainly too late to pursue this for this first round of funding but the second and third deadlines will be here before we know it.
We have seen time and again that an active community effort is necessary to stimulate private sector investment or the political momemtum for a public sector solution.