Thanks to Karl Samp for the update on BBC community Martin County…
Martin County: Continues to be a star BBC – They met Tuesday to discuss the following…
Three of the four funded projects were there to give reports on status.
- App. Camp – Big success 10 8th graders from different county school districts created apps/games about public places, things to do and see in Martin County using MIT Inventor software. Lots of local coverage including KEYC TV out of Mankato. Have enough money left to do a mini App camp with 4th and 5th graders during school year using Scratch software. Students that partook must perform 5 hours of service – 2 of which was at the County Fair staffing a booth about their/BBC project, Other 3 hours will be assisting with Comm. Ed. Tech Classes (See below). Hope to get additional funds to continue project reaching more kids in smaller districts in County.
- Comm. Ed. (CER) technology Classes – 1st offering will start this month- 26th. Specialty classes scheduled with Senior, group homes, and Chamber.) Also, will have a series (9) of coffee classes around the county – 1 hr. 10-11 a.m. Oct. – March – Folks preregister and give topics they want to learn about – they are thinking a lot will be for those who are thinking about (or recently have) purchasing mobile devices and how to get the most out of them. Flyer developed and all will get a flash drive. All locations have table tents promoting the event at their location as well.
- Unified Community Calendar of Events – in place, being populated, and big marketing campaign starting on availability and for orgs., how to use it. Going well, great response to the idea so far. Will help all orgs. Avoid duplicating dates for events, and provide one place for residents and visitors to find out about events.
- Community WiFi – Lead was on vacation and no one else had info on where it was at. In addition to public WiFi at sites around county, they will have WiFi on Activities buses and public transit buses.
- Feasibility Study Grant – Scott and Bryan are developing the RFP, using the templates I got from Bill to share. One thing that is happening there that may affect when they get this out, is that Frontier has designated about $27M of CAF for build out in Martin County serving about 2700 residences/businesses. Jeff. M. from Frontier was on vacation so we didn’t get an update on their status, and not sure how much they will share and how soon before they start. Also, just since the BBC started, and the providers showed up en masse at the Vision meeting and they have found where fiber is running now, and several businesses that weren’t connected, are now being served. Sounds like an Infrastructure Sub Committee will be formed to work alongside Scott and Bryan through the process. Jean Burkhart, formerly of NW Area Foundation is a resident and active in the group. Also a former Cty. Comm. so she has been a great addition. She made this suggestion and volunteered. I think she wants BB at her Fox Lake home J.
PCs for People – Scheduled for Oct. 8th, 6-8 p.m. at Elementary School cafeteria in Fairmont. They sent out 250 letters to county social services and only had 4 replies, but they just went out last week. They will work with schools if response is light. Have local repair shop in place. Also, as a repair shop in Welcome that a couple ran but they moved to ND to set up shop there. They are now back, and retired living above storefront. Bridget, from Welcome TV felt they might have a strong interest in doing a local PCs for P affiliate program with students. They will explore. HS Football team will participate in event and carry out computers to vehicles for folks.
With all of the above funded in early round, they only have about 12 or 13,left if they are being held to Feasibility Grant counting against their $75K. They also have addressed almost all of their priority projects identified in Visioning.
Possible projects so far include the two mentioned above (App Camp expansion and PCs for P affiliate. Also more $ for classes may be sought).
Library may get involved.