Other MRP sites:

MRP Broadband Study notes from Moose Lake

(Feb 13, 2004)
Another Update from the Agate Capital:

Our “project” website is still in the process of being tweaked but is available for viewing at www.moose-tec.com. We are sharing the site with the Moose Lake Water and Light and still need to create our own identity on this piece but it is coming. We are using this site to have area people register for our New Horizons month of March as well. We also update the calendar of events as dates are confirmed. We have created table tents, ads and flyers for the New Horizons event as well.

Our first video-taping of local tech users is taking place this Saturday, February 14th, using a “forum discussion” setting with the interviews and discussion being led by one of our local news broadcast personalities, Michelle Lee. These tapes will be shown, as mentioned earlier, on our local public access channel at various times during the month.

March 17th is the date set for our sponsorship of a Chamber of Commerce after-hours event. We are inviting MediaCom, Genesis, and a local tech support enterprise North 65 to be available for a short presentation and to answer questions throughout the two-hour evening session (5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.).

We have some courses/sessions/workshops planned and volunteers to present them which will be offered through our community ed program which will be a big help in terms of advertising and registrations. Our school is the only place which has sufficient computers to be used for this purpose, and the superintendent, principals and staff are quite supportive of our efforts. As dates are firmed up, they will be placed on our website calendar as well.

Of course, it all boils down now to a stronger outreach effort to find others willing to present classes to keep the ball rolling. Hopefully with the news being spread throughout the local school districts, hospital and clinic staff, and chamber members the interest will grow the feed on itself.

I have mentioned to our superintendent, principals, etc. the idea, Bill, you presented during one of your visits regarding guest speakers/visitors at our local schools showing interested students the latest/greatest things out there in IT, and providing these young people with the opportunity of interacting with tech professionals. I also suggested the idea of a week or weekend get-together at our local Camp Miller with this idea in mind as well—an immersion of some type. The ideas were well received so I see promise in this as well.

We have produced an informational brochure for our Tech Initiative Committee and this project. It includes, among other things, dates for planned events and a short bio on local “who’s who” in the tech world. This will be updated monthly. It was distributed at our Chamber Annual Meeting and is placed on counters at City Hall, Public Library, Hospital, etc. Along with the biography of the local broadband/tech user, we arrange for a video-taped interview which is shown on our local cable channel during a “variety” program about our City produced by two local citizens.

A short presentation (along with an informal survey) was made at our area Chamber of Commerce Annual Dinner. The feedback from the survey is being used to look at New Horizons suggestions as well as to help us present some informational sessions and possible classes through Community Ed.

We have been asked to make a short presentation to our local Kiwanis organization in March—we have a power point presentation we use for this purpose and there will be a couple of committee members there for Q & A as well.

We have a committee meeting coming up Thursday, Jan 28 which will be held at our local school—those attending will be the school superintendent, the high school and elementary principals, resource media personnel, and any other interested people. The superintendent has already committed to holding a faculty meeting for the purpose of our presenting our committee, this project, etc.

We are also making contact with our ministerial association, hospital foundation and board of directors, hospital auxiliary, Moose Lodge, local AARP, etc. for the opportunity of individual presentations to each group.

One of our committee members is in the process of working with the New Horizons offerings and is also going to set a date this week for an informal presentation open to the public (presented by himself) regarding Identity Theft. Another member is going to set one up designed for business and/or individuals seeking general information on web-site creation, maintenance, and usage application.

We are also close to setting up a date to co-host (hopefully with MediaCom and Genesis) an after-hours Chamber get-together involving a short presentation and a Q & A session.

Still kicking around some other ideas, but these would be more of a long-term nature and need more discussion.

The Moose Lake community telecommunications project continues to move forward.

Moose Lake Power and Light has been a leader in the project, which could one day lead to Moose Lake becoming a telecommunications hub in the area. Local businesses have also been instrumental in the project.

Carmen Palazzari is the Retail and Marketing Manager at First National Bank of Moose Lake. She is also chairperson of the Moose Lake Area Technology Initiative (MLATI).

In her position at the bank, Palazzari was aware of local business' need for high speed telecommunications. When the city council came to the Chamber of Commerce to drum up support for a technology initiative, they had a receptive audience. That led to the creation of MLATI, with Palazzari as its chairperson.

Businesses were asking for high speed telecommunications. "We saw the need to keep our community economically viable," Palazzari said. "We said we would do what we could to make it happen."

A plan was developed, a plan to bring broadband communications throughout the city. While fiber optic and wireless infrastructure has been deployed by Moose Lake Water and Light, MLATI has not lost sight of helping create demand for those services.

Building Demand

MLATI is receiving planning assistance from Minnesota Rural Partners. (MRP). MRP received financial assistance from the Blandin Foundation, which has launched the Minnesota Rural Broadband Promotion Project, in an effort to help communities with less than 2,500 residents increase the use of high-speed Internet and technology. As part of that work, Rural Partners is contracted with Community Technology Advisors Corp., (CTAC) to assist MLATI's efforts.

"Providers get excited about installing the hardware," said Bill Coleman of CTAC, "but there often needs to be more market development work." In Moose Lake, MLATI also came up with some funds and in-kind help to work with CTAC on setting goals, and planning.

The Moose Lake group has identified a number of community organization newsletters that will all be used to get technology on people's minds. Various events will also be planned, scheduled and promoted. A 'who's who' of local technical resources will be compiled, classes offered, and a cooperative process set up to create more capability for the area.

It's a real grass roots effort, Palazzari said, and one the participants "firmly believe" will continue moving forward. And it will include other communities.

Involving Other Communities

Moose Lake is participating in the Pine City I-35 corridor effort, which seeks to build a web of wireless Internet connectivity in communities along I-35W from Pine City to Moose Lake.

Locally, MLATI would like to expand the local wireless system to include the neighboring communities of Kettle River, Willow River and Barnum, with Moose Lake serving as the hub for the transferring and relaying of information. "With the other communities so close, it would be foolish to attempt to do it alone," Palazzari said. "The more we can cooperate is in everybody's best interests."

Moose Lake Water and Light built the fiber optic community backbone that includes the downtown area. The utility upgraded computers and communications at the municipal power plant and expanded an area wide network that includes all of city services including city hall, water and light, street and sewer services and the library. It has also installed a wireless system. The city is planning to submit a letter of intent to the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission for a certificate to provide local niche broadband service.

Water and Light is planning on issuing revenue bonds to expand the local generating plant. It will use the up-to-date communications infrastructure to monitor its system, which will maximize power production and use of personnel. The locally-controlled network has increased the speed of Internet connections in the city from 26.8kb to a minimum of 56kb to as much as 1,540kb.

Eight Communities Receive Grants

Eight communities from around Minnesota were selected for the Minnesota Rural Partners grants. They include Moose Lake, Grand Marais, Madelia, Hoyt Lakes, Starbuck, Milan, Canby and Bird Island. Madelia Power and Light and the City of Madelia are participating in their local project, with the Madelia Telephone Company, which is the local provider. Grand Marais also received a Blandin Foundation grant. The Grand Marais effort is being led by Boreal Access, a community cooperative.