Last week I wrote about the potential role for state and federal government in expanding broadband access. The county has a role to play too – and we’ve seen that focus on county (versus city or town) increase over the last three or four years. The beauty of a county approach is that it helps reach the most difficult areas to serve – the areas between towns with lots of distance and low population density.

Aitkin is looking at channeling economic development funds to support broadband – mirroring the state’s focus on broadband in the Department of Employment and Economic Development. The Aitkin Age reports…

Ross Wagner, Aitkin County economic development, appeared in front of the Aitkin County Board of Commissioners at its Aug. 25 meeting to request the Economic Development Fund be renamed to the Broadband Development Fund, and to authorize $50,000 for a pre-engineering study to be completed.

In a memo to the commissioners, Wagner requests the $525,297.61 balance be used for broadband development.

“The Economic Development Fund was created with excess PILT payments and revolving loan fund payments,” wrote Wagner. “After the revolving loan fund was abolished, the funds remained, to be used for future economic development infrastructure projects.”

Wagner hoped to use the funds as a way to engage with potential partners and providers in developing a partnership moving forward – to show the county was putting skin in the game. In his outline, Wagner said it’s important to get an engineer’s cost estimate for navigating the county’s terrain. Wagner also stated while nothing is set in stone at this point, the county will not be in the business of running broadband services, thus the need for a private company partnership. The project would also need to be done in phases, stated Wagner.

And it sounds as if they are using the potential funding to bring providers to the table…

There seems to be as many phone company providers in Aitkin County as there are Johnsons in the phone book. When it comes to the availability of broadband, Aitkin County is hoping to bring the providers to the table to discuss expanding the service throughout the county.