Northland’s Newscenter reports some good news…

A judge has ruled in favor of Lake County in a $5 million lawsuit involving bond money used in the installation of broadband internet services.

The Reader’s Digest of details…

The ruling stems from a lawsuit filed by Texas-based investment group ORIX Public Finance, LCC over matching funds in the sale of bonds.

In October 2010, ORIX agreed to purchase the bonds from Lake County. In November 2010, the Department of Agriculture, Rural Utility Service declined to allow ORIX equal security status for the bonds as the RUS had for the loan.

As a result, ORIX required Lake County to pay more financing costs, which would result in Lake County selling ORIX $5.6 million in revenue bonds at a higher interest rate of 15 percent, among other conditions.

The higher interest rates forced the county to match funds themselves, by using money from its own reserves.

And the not-so-great news…

The decision is subject to appeal.

Lake County received $66 million is stimulus funds (loans and grants) to build a fiber network. That also seemed to start an avalanche of obstacles – but Lake County seems to have come out on the winning end of each juncture.