Announcements regarding the first round of federal stimulus grants for fiber optic technology are winding their way through the nation, and two large nonprofits with projects intended for Cook County are among the winners.
The Northeast Service Cooperative, headquartered in Mt. Iron, has announced that it will receive $43.5 million for its Northeast Middle Mile Fiber Project. The money will come from the U.S. Department of Agriculture through the Rural Utilities Service and is comprised of 50% grant and 50% loan.
According to Northeast Service Cooperative Executive Director Paul Brinkman, “The Northeast Middle Mile Fiber Project will bring worldclass, vendor-neutral broadband service to more than 220 key sites across the Arrowhead region, over 915 miles of in-the-ground fiber backbone.” That backbone, covering ¼ of Minnesota’s land mass within St. Louis, Lake, Koochiching, Carlton, Pine, Itasca, Aitkin, and Cook counties, will extend up the Highway 61 corridor to the Canadian border.
“A number of anchor institutions will participate in the project,” a Northeast Service Cooperative press release reported, “including school districts, state and municipal agencies, SISU Medical Systems [a consortium of Minnesota medical centers working together to share information technology resources], Arrowhead Library System, and the Minnesota Association of Mental Health Programs.
“The project will impact the entire northeast region including Duluth, the Iron Range, and the Carlton County I-35 corridor while helping to ensure the long-term health and vitality of remote but strategically important communities such as Grand Marais, Ely, and International Falls. …The project will connect critical public sector agencies including public school districts, libraries, health care organizations, state, county, city and other municipal agencies. It will make dark fiber, wavelength services available to private-sector providers in order to improve broadband connectivity in the unserved and underserved rural areas of northeast Minnesota.”
The project is expected to create up to seven jobs in the service sector and about 100 jobs in the supply chain and construction industry as well as leverage more federal funds. “Among its many benefits, the Northeast Middle Mile Fiber Project will meet growing demand at the University of Minnesota, Duluth for connectivity within the state university system, high-bandwidth needs for special projects such as the High Energy Physics Lab at the Soudan Underground Laboratory, development and growth for the Bois Forte Band of Chippewa, [and] redundant interconnections for state and emergency services,” according to the agency.
The Northeast Service Cooperative has operated a regional wide-area computer network since 2000. The Minnesota Public Utilities Commission granted it Community Local Exchange Carrier status in 2006. “We are experienced in designing, building and operating telecommunications networks,” the cooperative says.
Northeast Service Cooperative Executive Director Paul Brinkman said, “Long-term, the project becomes a permanent asset, a community resource, and an economic development engine for the northeast region and the State of Minnesota.”
Blandin gets grant
On the same day, March 25, the Blandin Foundation announced that it, along with 19 “coalition partners,” was awarded a $4.7 million U.S. Department of Commerce grant on behalf of rural Minnesota communities as part of the government’s Broadband Technology Opportunities Program, administered through the National Telecommunications and Information Administration.
The foundation applied for the funding on behalf of numerous Minnesota entities including the University of Minnesota Extension Center for Community Vitality, Minnesota State Colleges and Universities, the Association of Minnesota Counties, the Minnesota Department of Economic Development Workforce Centers, and the state’s nine regional development commissions.
Part of the funding will go to a Minnesota Intelligent Rural Communities initiative that will give up to $100,000 to each of 11 communities, including Cook County, to develop and demonstrate broadband projects. According to Blandin Foundation Director of Communications Allison Rajala Ahcan, Cook County “answered the call for partners” issued by Blandin in early 2009.
“Cook County was selected because of the region’s ongoing investments in broadbandbased economic development and the committed leadership already in place,” Ahcan said in an email to the Cook
County News-Herald.
She believes that leadership is vital. “Throughout our six years’ experience with broadband in rural communities, Blandin Foundation continually sees that designing a broadband future is as much about leadership as it is about technology.”
Ahcan said Cook County Information Systems Director Danna MacKenzie would head a local team that will work with residents to set priorities and design projects. According to MacKenzie, the Cook County Fiber Optic Commission will seek authorization from the county board on April 13.
Cook County can apply to Blandin for up to $100,000 and may need to find matching funds for some of the projects. It must commit to at least four projects. “The projects will focus on using broadband tools to address various themes within our community,” MacKenzie told the News-
Herald
on March 31, “such as ensuring adequate access for everyone, teaching people to use broadband tools in ways that give their career or business more opportunities, and finding new and innovate ways for government, schools, and businesses to apply broadband tools to what they are already doing.”
MacKenzie said the commission envisions meeting with representatives from local entities including the school districts, health care, higher education, the trade and tech project, the tourism industry, the youth community, the ministerium, and local media to brainstorm possible projects. Theycould then poll the community for comments, other suggestions, and interest in the projects that have been proposed.
“From this process,” MacKenzie said, “we will select the projects that best meet the big goal of making the community stronger and the ones that are financially feasible and those that are doable within the two-year timeframe of the grant.”
One idea would be to create an online version of local cable TV’s PAC-13, on which the late Holly Nelson broadcast governmental meetings and high school sports. “Thiswould be a site where community members could easily access and contribute video material that is by and about our community,” MacKenzie said.
“Through this grant,” a March 25 Blandin press release states, “the Minnesota Rural Communities Coalition will bring a network of resources and support to rural Minnesota individuals and communities – especially those unemployed and seeking employment, small businesses, coalitions of government entities, and local leaders.”
“Vital rural economies demand connected rural communities,” said Blandin Foundation President Jim Hoolihan, “and right now there is a significant – almost 20%—gap between rural and urban home broadband adoption rates.”
Qwest enters the game
Also on March 25, Qwest Communications announced that it applied for a secondround stimulus grant through the USDA Rural Utilities Service to extend broadband to rural communities throughout its 14-state service region at a cost of $467 million. Qwest would be responsible for 25% of that cost, or $117 million. “The area features expansive terrain where the construction of broadband facilities is expensive and difficult,” a Qwest press release states, “making the one-time federal funding necessary.”
“Much like the water and electric programs the government established to encourage rural development, federal grants are needed to enable the deployment of broadband to high-cost, unserved areas,” said Steve Davis, senior vice president of Qwest Public Policy and Government Relations. “As the FCC [Federal Communications Commission] has found,” Davis continued, “access to the Internet is increasingly essential for competing and succeeding in the world’s expanding knowledge-based economy.”
The Rural Utilities Service expects to award this round of grants by the end of September.
That application would be in competition with those of the Arrowhead Electric Cooperative and the Northeast Service Cooperative, which are also applying for second round funding for fiber optic infrastructure in Cook County. With a growing number of entities applying, Cook County may just get it, one way or another.
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