Go local or go cheap? This is a question Cook County citizens ponder frequently.
On October 18, the Cook County North Shore Hospital board was faced with a decision regarding entering a contract for broadband Internet service with Northeast Service Cooperative (NESC), which is installing a fiber optic “backbone” up the North Shore. The hospital had the option of entering a contract with Cook County’s rural electric company, Arrowhead Electric Cooperative Inc. (AECI), instead, as AECI works to bring fiber optic connection to electric customers throughout the county.
Since both Howard Abrahamson and Tom Spence are on the Arrowhead Electric board of directors, they had a potential conflict of interest regarding which broadband provider the hospital should enter an agreement with. Because of this, the other three members of the hospital board were given a choice regarding whether Abrahamson and Spence could participate in the discussion or even remain in the room while the issue was discussed. Justin Mueller, Kay Olsen, and Sharon Bloomquist agreed to allow them to remain in the room during the discussion.
Hospital Information Technology Technician Greg Johnson said that with the new fiber optic lines, Internet speed will be about 600 times faster than what they have now. NESC was offering to provide the hospital with Internet at the same price it is paying now—$475 a month for the first five years of a 10-year contract. After that, it would increase 3 percent a year.
Johnson said Arrowhead Electric could not offer a price this low. NESC could offer this price because it receives government funding. Arrowhead Electric’s system would also be less secure because information would have to go through a couple of different routers, he said.
Hospital Administrator Kimber Wraalstad recommended that they go with Northeast Service Cooperative. The board voted unanimously to enter a contract with NESC, with board members Abrahamson and Spence abstaining.
“It would be nice to go local,” said Johnson, “but NESC is our best option.”
Arrowhead Electric is coordinating with NESC as fiber optic lines are being installed throughout Cook County.
Clinic director’s report
Sawtooth Mountain Clinic Director Rita Plourde reported that the Statewide Health Improvement Program (SHIP) that is housed out of the clinic would be expanded and renamed because of a U.S. Center for Disease Control Community Transformation Grant that went to seven counties in the region.
The focus will be on improving health and nutrition and will involve bringing locally grown food to large kitchens such as the ones at Cook County Schools and the hospital.
Sawtooth Mountain Clinic, Grand Portage Clinic, and the hospital lab have received funding from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency through the Minnesota Department of Health for a program called Protecting Great Lakes Fish Consumers. Officials are concerned because women of childbearing age on the North Shore have been found to have higher levels of mercury in their blood than other women of childbearing age in the Lake Superior basin.
The program will work with female volunteers between the ages of 18 and 50 with a goal of minimizing mercury consumption while maximizing the health benefits of eating fish. The first year of the grant will be spent setting up the program.
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