I wrote about Lake County right before Christmas. Just to catch anyone up – Lake County received ARRA-funding for a FTTH network. One of the project partners is National Public Broadband (NPB). Tim Nulty is one of the key members of NBP. Years ago Tim worked to get fiber in rural areas in Vermount through a company called Burlington Telcom. Tim left Burlington a while ago. Since he left the company has run into fiancial troubles. So there has been some concern about how Burlington’s situation will relate to or have an impact on Lake County. And there has been some concern that that concern is unwarranted.

This has brought the Lake County project to one of its first barriers. Tonight, January 10 (at 6 pm), the Lake County Commissioners are meeting about this issue at the Grand Superior Lodge. So we’ll know more on Tuesday.

I hope that this is a barrier they will be able to overcome quickly. Sometimes that which doesn’t kill us makes us stronger – maybe this will make them stronger or at least smarter. Chris Mitchell has written a recap of the situation quoting from a recent editorial in the Lake County Chronicle…

The county can use NPB’s disclosure mistake to its advantage, by holding NPB’s feet to the fire on all elements of the fiber rollout plan. If NPB can convince the board that this early communication snafu is the last, members would be right to keep moving forward with the project by permanently partnering with NPB.