I just returned from updating the county board of commissioners on some of the items that the broadband committee is tracking. There are several points that our readers may also be interested in, so they are included here. Please email us if you have any questions.
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Fiber Optic Network Backbone Coming Up the Shore in 2012
North East Service Cooperative (NESC) is scheduled to officially accept their ROUND 1 grant funding from the federal Rural Utilities Service (RUS) tomorrow, August 18th, at their regular board meeting. Howard Hedstrom will attend this meeting on our behalf.
This network will build 915 miles of fiber optic cable that will connect over 85 communities in Northeast Minnesota, including Grand Marais, and Grand Portage. The final list of sites to be connected will be announced soon.
We believe that once a site has been approved to be on the network, there will be a small connection fee, and an agreement to continue to pay existing telecom fees into the new network for a period of time, These details have not been finalized.
Still Waiting on RUS Round 2 Grant Applications
North East Service Cooperative and Arrowhead Electric both submitted applications to the RUS to extend the backbone network mentioned above out to the homes and businesses in Cook County. Both applicants were asked for more information. We have also been told that RUS sent someone to Cook County to field check both applications.
The granting agency has said there will be two more rounds of awards for this program, August 19th and September 7th. Because of the request for more information, it is speculated that both grants would fall into the latter announcement window.
Arrowhead Electric is still in discussions with Pulse Broadband on how to close a gap in their proposal that was left last month when Pulse withdrew from a portion of the original agreement.
Senator Klobuchar invites Bruce Kerfoot to Speak
Senator Klobuchar is active at the federal level in the arena of achieving access to high quality broadband connections for all US citizens and businesses. She is hosting a Broadband Summit on August 24th, at the U of M Carlson School of Management from 10am – Noon and will be joined by FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski. Senator Klobuchar has invited Bruce Kerfoot to be a panelist at the forum and speak to the need for Minnesota small businesses to have access to high quality, affordable broadband.
Blandin Minnesota Intelligent Rural Communities (MIRC) Project RFP
The RFP application has been published. If you have an idea for a small project that uses broadband to strengthen our community, download an application HERE. If you know of an organization that might be interested in this opportunity, please pass this along and encourage them to apply.
This program will provide funding support to local organizations and individuals for at least four projects (and hopefully more). There is up to $100,000 available to fund projects that demonstrate ways our community can benefit from the use of broadband tools. Deadlines for applications are October 11th. More information on the MIRC program is available from our last update on this site, and to see ideas that other community members have for possible projects, visit http://ccmirc.ideascale.com
