The Cook County Broadband Commission (CCBC) continues to work to find public access “hot” spots to establish co-working facilities for community members and visitors and to enable the use of teleconferencing in the county. The work to date has been funded by a Minnesota Intelligent Rural Communities grant from the Blandin Foundation. At the Tuesday, October 27, county board meeting, Broadband Commission Chair Bob Pranis asked if the county would pay $700 for one member of the broadband commission to attend a Blandin Foundation Broadband Conference in November.
The county board seemed agreeable, noting that this was valuable training and a networking opportunity, but questioned whether this fit in the county’s travel reimbursement policy. The request was tabled until the Nov. 10 meeting so it can be determined where the funds for the request would come from.
The county board approved a similar request in 2014 from then-Broadband Commission Chair Paul Harvey for up to $750 toward the Blandin Foundation Broadband Commission Conference in Brainerd in November 2014.
In June 2015, Pranis came before the county board with two requests. The first was to ask the county to act as CCBC’s fiscal agent if it is awarded a grant from the Blandin Foundation and the second was to ask approval to be listed as one of the potential sources for funding the match to the grant.
Pranis explained that in 2008, Cook County was selected by the Blandin Foundation to receive the Minnesota Intelligent Rural Communities Grants of $100,000. He said that grant enabled the CCBC to implement a wide range of projects related to broadband that are still active in the community.
Another grant is now available, he said, up to $25,000 with a match of 25 percent or $8,500.
After discussion of what the CCBC is working on and its importance to the community, commissioners made a motion to grant both requests, but made it clear that the county wouldn’t necessarily be on the hook to pay the match to the grant. Pranis said there were several other options for the CCBC to explore to find these funds.
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