Good news from The Globe…

Lismore Cooperative Telephone Co. on Wednesday officially broke ground on its ambitious project to deliver high-speed internet to much of Nobles County.

The project got legs when the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development announced in January that the co-op had received a $2.94 million grant to create a hybrid fiber and wireless network. The co-op matched the $2.94 million grant one-to-one.

Finley Engineering of Slayton will do the engineering and LaPointe Utilities of Forest Lake will serve as the contractor for the project, which looks to provide 500 square miles in new wireless coverage, distributed through five towers. The company will build a fiber ring around the county as well — fiber to the home will be installed to homes in Leota and Wilmont, as well as any homes that happen to be along the fiber route.

LaPointe will be building three new 200-foot towers, as well as a series of huts that will facilitate the fiber ring connections. It will need to lay around 135 miles of fiber to complete the route.