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Redwood Falls, Minn. —
When Redwood County was designated in a state report to be one of the 10 most underserved counties in Minnesota when it comes to access to the Internet, discussions began taking place to determine how to remedy that.
A group of local communications providers and technology savvy individuals gathers under the guidance of the Redwood Area Devel-opment Corporation (RADC) to talk about what can be done to ensure the county’s residents are having their needs met when it comes to good Internet access.
After receiving 30 hours of technical support through a grant from the Blandin Foundation and conducting a community meeting to allow residents of the county a chance to find out what the needs really are, an application was submitted to the Blandin Foundation to have a feasibility study conducted to determine not only what is available right now but also to determine the best way to move the county forward.
The cost of the study is estimated to be $80,000 with $40,000 of that coming from Blandin and the rest required through matching funds from local groups and agencies.
According to Julie Rath of the RADC, funds have been committed from local Inter-net providers to help meet the required $40,000 match.
There was, however, a gap of up to $25,000 left to make the study happen.
Based on a recommendation from the Redwood County EDA, the Redwood County Board of Commis-sioners approved allocating up to $25,000 in EDA funds to cover the remaining costs of the study.
Of that funding, approximately $17,000 was funding designated from 2010 that was left unspent, with the remaining $8,000 coming from the 2011 EDA budget.
The study, said Rath, is intended to help the county best prepare itself to meet the state standard of having 20 megabytes of upload speed and 10 megabytes of download speed by 2015.
While much of the discussion being held around this broadband initiative has centered around fiberoptic cable as an option, Rath said the feasibility study would consider all potential options to determine what is best for the county.
The question county board members answered is whether or not the county as a whole wants to be left behind or move ahead when it comes to broadband access.
The consistent message heard by local leaders who are trying to entice people to the community is about the importance of broadband access, and Rath said what the county can offer now is not very attractive to pros-pective businesses.
Duane Anderson, who serves on the RADC board admitted he is never very keen on finding value in feasibility studies, but he said the approach of this Blandin study appears to be different.
“We know we need to do something,” said Anderson. “This study is going to tell us what that is and how to do it.”
Lon Walling, county commissioner agreed what Redwood County does not want to be is an island when it comes to offering technology access.
Bruce Johnson, a member of the Red-wood County EDA said what this study is going to do is provide the county with the equivalent of a business plan that in the end helps the county focus on how the county needs to proceed.
Priscilla Klabunde, county commissioner raised the idea of approaching the issue of broadband access at more of a regional level, adding there is value in tagging up with others not only financially but in meeting the needs of the residents of the county and region as a whole.
With the funding now available to move forward with the study, the work of gathering the information to be used in the study begins.
No timelines were offered as to when the project would start, but one would assume work would start soon.
When Redwood County was designated in a state report to be one of the 10 most underserved counties in Minnesota when it comes to access to the Internet, discussions began taking place to determine how to remedy that.
A group of local communications providers and technology savvy individuals gathers under the guidance of the Redwood Area Devel-opment Corporation (RADC) to talk about what can be done to ensure the county’s residents are having their needs met when it comes to good Internet access.
After receiving 30 hours of technical support through a grant from the Blandin Foundation and conducting a community meeting to allow residents of the county a chance to find out what the needs really are, an application was submitted to the Blandin Foundation to have a feasibility study conducted to determine not only what is available right now but also to determine the best way to move the county forward.
The cost of the study is estimated to be $80,000 with $40,000 of that coming from Blandin and the rest required through matching funds from local groups and agencies.
According to Julie Rath of the RADC, funds have been committed from local Inter-net providers to help meet the required $40,000 match.
There was, however, a gap of up to $25,000 left to make the study happen.
Based on a recommendation from the Redwood County EDA, the Redwood County Board of Commis-sioners approved allocating up to $25,000 in EDA funds to cover the remaining costs of the study.
Of that funding, approximately $17,000 was funding designated from 2010 that was left unspent, with the remaining $8,000 coming from the 2011 EDA budget.
The study, said Rath, is intended to help the county best prepare itself to meet the state standard of having 20 megabytes of upload speed and 10 megabytes of download speed by 2015.
While much of the discussion being held around this broadband initiative has centered around fiberoptic cable as an option, Rath said the feasibility study would consider all potential options to determine what is best for the county.
The question county board members answered is whether or not the county as a whole wants to be left behind or move ahead when it comes to broadband access.
The consistent message heard by local leaders who are trying to entice people to the community is about the importance of broadband access, and Rath said what the county can offer now is not very attractive to pros-pective businesses.
Duane Anderson, who serves on the RADC board admitted he is never very keen on finding value in feasibility studies, but he said the approach of this Blandin study appears to be different.
“We know we need to do something,” said Anderson. “This study is going to tell us what that is and how to do it.”
Lon Walling, county commissioner agreed what Redwood County does not want to be is an island when it comes to offering technology access.
Bruce Johnson, a member of the Red-wood County EDA said what this study is going to do is provide the county with the equivalent of a business plan that in the end helps the county focus on how the county needs to proceed.
Priscilla Klabunde, county commissioner raised the idea of approaching the issue of broadband access at more of a regional level, adding there is value in tagging up with others not only financially but in meeting the needs of the residents of the county and region as a whole.
With the funding now available to move forward with the study, the work of gathering the information to be used in the study begins.
No timelines were offered as to when the project would start, but one would assume work would start soon.
