With its yeoman’s service accomplished, the Cook County Broadband Commission (CCBC) was officially put to rest at the Cook County commissioners’ Nov. 22 meeting.
Commissioners met with Bob Pranis to hear a final broadband report.
Begun in July 2011, Pranis said the CCBC had fulfilled its goals to ensure adequate wire and wireless service to the county.
Broadband connectivity has allowed businesses in Cook County to compete on regional and national levels as well as allow new businesses to come into the county, said Pranis.
The plan to make high-speed Internet access, cable TV, and telephone service available to most homes and businesses was mostly successful. Only cable TV remained out of reach when a television provider wasn’t found to package with high-speed Internet and telephone.
Broadband Commission members met monthly, said Pranis, to exchange information and to discuss issues relating to broadband implementation, education, and projects.
Some history
In the beginning, the county applied for stimulus dollars so it could build the fiber system. But Cook County’s application wasn’t chosen, and Arrowhead Electric Cooperative, with the blessing of the county, won $16 million in stimulus money in the second round of federal funding. Since then Arrowhead has run fiber cable to every customer who has electrical service, along with the same routes taken by the power lines.
With a population of 3.5 people per square mile, a short construction season, trenching in and laying fiber optic cable was slow and very expensive, and took several years longer than expected to complete.
In 2011, ConnectMinnesota said fewer than half of Cook County’s households had access to Internet download speeds of 3 megabits per second, which ranked Cook County third from the bottom among Minnesota’s 87 counties when it came to connectivity. By 2015, when the majority of the county was wired for broadband, the download speed was 10 megabits per second, and to date, 1,850 households and businesses are hooked up to broadband.
Hooking up to broadband service in Cook County is possible because of a partnership between Arrowhead Electric Cooperative Inc.—Cook County’s electrical and Internet cooperative—and Northeast Service Cooperative (NESC)—a government-initiated regional service organization that helps government and other agencies find the best prices on goods and services.
Both entities received federal funding to install fiber optic cable. The two signed a 22-year contract in which Arrowhead Electric will use Northeast Service Cooperative’s fiber optic lines running along Highway 61 through Lake and St. Louis counties and Northeast Service Cooperative will use Arrowhead Electric’s fiber optic lines running along Highway 61 through Cook County.
Along the way, Blandin Foundation awarded grants to the county to be used to set up a series of demonstration projects to show residents how broadband could improve their lives.
Some grant money was used to wire the high school for streaming video. Some allowed the Cook County Historical Society to place some of its collection, including video and audio clips, online. The Grand Marais Public Library received new computers from Blandin grant money while Boreal Access, which provided dial-up for years, began to provide a public access channel with streaming video. Sawtooth Mountain Clinic used some of the money to produce a series of videos showing people how to meet simple health needs, such as injecting insulin.
Through better connectivity Pranis said the goal was to allow more people to find work locally – perhaps by telecommuting to jobs elsewhere – and to improve prospects for telemedicine and distance learning, which have been achieved, or in the field of telemedicine, which are are currently being pursued by Northshore Health.
Today
The Broadband Commission applied for grant money received from Blandin.
A smattering of projects begun by the CCBC includes computer training offered at Higher Education. A monthly tech “Help” desk at the library for the community. Five video conferencing sites established throughout the county. And purchased through grants were iPads for ISD 166 students and E-readers and iPads made available for checkout at the library.
“These projects and more,” said Pranis,“We accomplished with zero money from the county.”
Serving for the whole duration of the CCBC was Paula Sundet Wolf, Pat Campanaro, and Bob Pranis. Others who worked shorter volunteer terms include Howard Hedstrom, Paul Harvey, Terry Meath, Jack McDonnell, Jim Boyd, Mark Luttinen, Dave Mills, Woody Gilk, and Steve Harsin.
One county staffer, Auditor/Treasurer Braidy Powers, was also on the board for its entire operation. Others from the county who assisted CCBC included Dana Mackenzie, Rena Rogers, Jeff Cadwell, Sue Hakes, Bruce Martinson, Virginia (Ginny) Storlie, and Jan Sivertson. Joe Butweiler and Sara McManus represented Arrowhead Electric on the commission while Mimi Gentz, Kevin Anderson, and Yvonne Caruthers represented the Broadband Project. One other notable member of the committee was John Jacobsen, who was the Cook County School District I.S.D. 166 liaison to the commission.
At this point, said Pranis, many of the projects and tasks are done or have been shifted to other organizations.
Cook County commissioners applauded Pranis and members who served on the CCBC for their work. Pranis said that some of the former CCBC members might at times informally meet to discuss county broadband projects, simply because of their high interest in seeing it continue to succeed.
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