Thanks to Karl Samp for the update on BBC community Redwood County…

Redwood County– Continues to meet (there have usually been 5 or 6 at most meetings) regularly. They had two projects ($23,400) in the early round so they have quite a few lined up for the next time.

They met on Monday afternoon to talk about the following–

Second Round potential projects as follows:

• Redwood Area Hospital – they are embarking on a pretty aggressive telemedicine project in partnership with John Goodman that involves lots of partners- long term care, group homes, Asst. Living, home health and the hospital, working primarily with the HCMC Physicians group. Primary areas to include: Cardio Care, Mental Health, and Ortho. They hope to be the regional center for SW MN to access specialty care via telemedicine. They just signed with an evaluation firm to do a pretty extensive evaluation component.  Probably coming in around $15K.
• GIS online for Redwood County. They’ve been working on this since they first heard about grant opportunities, and have two primary options. I think they are going with the more expensive one up-front, with better quality and expansion capacity, and lower on-going costs. They’ve been in contact with several other county GIS folks, including Big Stone, which was funded during MIRC. Probably around $14-$15K grant request.
• Laptop Lab for Lamberton Schools- will include Comm. Ed. component. – $3-5K request.
• Broadband Marketing initiative – to help drive demand for improved infrastructure in the county.  RADC lead – $2-3K request.
• iPad for Assisted Living – purchase two iPads for use in local Asst. Living facility – probably $1000 request.
• Public Library – Just got involved in the group which is good – looking to upgrade computers in the library – 16 if they go with desktop units but will explore laptops and possibly some iPads though City IT guy concerned about the mobile devises walking out. Told Terry Smith (Librarian) to check with others who have done this (i.e. Jackson). Looks like $6-10 K depending how they go and what match they can get from City.
• Tech Fair – One was held on the 17^th of this week. Sarah K. had written about possible sponsorship, but not until Aug. Told her to consider applying for up  to $1000 for next year.
• WiFi project – looks like New Ulm Telephone may be doing most of what they wanted for free so this one may not come in

PCs for People – Still trying to schedule, but looking like early Oct. Lamberton Schools sent letter to F & R Lunch families, and got 30 requests so event will probably be there. Leonard R. from Lamberton checking with other school districts for interest. They are exploring a collection as well, as the County has many in storage.

Early Grant Round status:

• Training Lab in the County:  Room has been cleared and cleaned. Computer stations in place and waiting for computers and monitors. They are exploring options for projector/Smart Board or TV. They will call SW MN RDC about getting in the Smart TV network funded in the early round through SW MN Broadband application. There initial goal was to be open for business on 12/31. Paul Parsons is hoping for a 12/1 date however.
• Community Ed. – A series (10-12) of community ed. Lunch and Learn classes will start in January, using the new training lab above.  They are also offering some special offerings specific to populations (seniors, disability, business, etc.)