Last month I mentioned that Anoka County was looking for partners to help build a network plan and create a proposal for the next round of ARRA funding. ABC Newspapers just reported an update in much greater detail. If you’re a community leader and you’re thinking about the role of government in broadband this article would give you a good snapshot of the issues.

The quick story is – Anoka County wants to pursue ARRA funding for a fiber network. Anoka cities have been voting on resolutions to support the idea. The resolution recently passed in Andover – but just barely with a 3-2 vote.

City council members had questions and clearly different level of experience with broadband. First – the County didn’t have any specifics so some folks were hesitant to sign up without reading the fine print. (Can’t fault them there.) One Councilmember had experience with the Minneapolis/USInternet arrangement for municipal wireless. She thinks having a commercial entity manage the network is key. Others have experience working in Anoka County office where the current Internet infrastructure is not sufficient for doing their jobs. They just want to move ahead. Still others are wondering where they will get the money needed to match for the federal funds. Others wonder about communities where the population density would have trouble supporting a commercial entity. Some like the idea of investment with federal dollars. Some are more fiscally conservative.

Also, this isn’t the first broadband infrastructure project in Anoka County. The schools ran fiber throughout the district in 2004 and opened that network up to cities. Some got connected some didn’t. Some have been working on other efforts. So each effort will have legacy issues or want a network that meets them or wants a network to raise them. Also a sense of immediacy with a new network depends on current access to an adequate network.

It seems like a pretty typical situation and while I’ve become a little wary of calling the ARRA stimulus money lately (since it hasn’t stimulated a lot of tangible improvements yet) maybe it is still stimulating conversations among people who needed the impetus to get together to move ahead. It will be interesting to see what happens.