Thanks to Stimulating Broadband for the heads up on this one…

Mediacom Asks USDA Inspector General for Federal Probe of Lake County, MN Broadband Award

This afternoon StimulatingBroadband.com published a story disclosing the first public filing of a complaint to the Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Agriculture relating to a broadband stimulus awarded project.

The filing was made by Mediacom Communications Corporation (NASDAQ: MCCC) against Lake County, Minnesota, relative to the County’s application for and receipt of a $66.5 million grant / loan package issued in August 2010 by the Rural Utilities Service (RUS) of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The plot thickens. The article points to potential Lake County’s issues with National Public Broadband and include a link to the Mediacom complaint.

The road to community broadband networks is not easy. We saw that with Monticello. That’s not to dismiss the charges.