According to the Star Tribune, Anoka County is looking into improved broadband access. It sounds as if they are considering seeking federal money – but before they go down that road or any other they are wisely doing a market survey. They have sent surveys to 900 Anoka County residents and have planned three public meetings scheduled for 7:00 pm on September 29, October 1, and October 8; the first meeting is at Spring Lake Park High School.

You can get more info on all three meetings on Connect Anoka County web site. In fact they have a lot of useful information. They have their questionnaire online. So if you’re from the area you can chime in; if you’re not from Anoka you might borrow their form for your area.

Back to the article, I have to include my favorite quote in the article from Commissioner Robyn West. She is on the Minnesota Ultra High Speed Task Force. Many of the members of the Task Force are long standing super geeks. (I type that with admiration.) I’m going to say that Robyn was probably not a lifelong super geek, so it has been interesting to hear her take on things; I think she values the investment of broadband more after a year with the Task Force – as demonstrated in the quote.

“When I got on the High Speed Task Force, my attitude was: ‘You want high-speed broadband, you move where they have it.’ But this generation that we have raised, they’re already doing a majority of their business on the Internet. They buy things, sell things, bank on the Internet, take classes on the Internet.

If there’s a way to pave the way and improve broadband service for the people of Anoka County, we’d like to be on track to prepare the next generation.”