The folks in St Louis County are clearly excited about the promise of broadband. They are getting a lot of local press. WDIO reports…

An early Christmas present for North Star and Pequaywan Townships. Leaders found out they are getting federal funding to pay for broadband for about 550 locations.

Minnesota’s broadband funding proposal has been approved, and that means Mediacom will get money to bring a fiber optic network to the rural townships.

This has been in the works since 2009. Janet Keough was a township supervisor then. “I teared up when I heard the news,” she shared. “I was jumping up and down. I can’t believe it’s actually happening.”

Rod Saline is a current supervisor, and told us everyone is very excited. “We got a lot of help from other townships that have gotten broadband.”

Mediacom will be putting in about 38 miles of cable. Saline told us they have already been doing some site prep work. So the hope is that they’ll break ground this spring.