The Aitkin Age reports on a recent County meeting on broadband. They talked about potential partnerships…

Wagner and Aitkin County Administrator Nathan Burkett have been meeting with providers, focusing the discussion on where the county needs broadband the most. Wagner said providers are willing to come in to the county if there’s financial assistance from the county.

Burkett told the board Frontier’s plan looks good, adding the company is putting “a ridiculous amount of fiber in the ground right now.”

Endorsing the Minnesota broadband vision…

The county approved support for the Blandin Foundation’s vision statement for bringing broadband to the state. Wagner hopes that the more counties and communities that approve the statement, the better chance greater Minnesota will have at getting through at the legislative level.

The approved mission statement is “Everyone in Minnesota will be able to use convenient, affordable world-class broadband networks that enable us to survive and thrive in our communities and across the globe.”

And broadband adoption programs…

Wagner was also in attendance to ask the board to accept a Blandin Foundation Grant to extend the Web Diagnostics Program for small businesses. The first program helped 11 businesses with limited funding. The Central Woodlands Blandin Broadband Community requested to take the Aitkin County model and offer the program to businesses within the Central Woodlands, which includes Aitkin County. The Blandin grant would be for $25,000 with the match provided by the East Central Regional Development Commission.