Midco outlines ongoing Sherburne County projects, ARPA partnership and BEAD application plans
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Summary
Midco reported active and planned fiber projects in Sherburne County, including a Livonia 3 ARPA-partnership build starting June 2025 and plans to apply to the state program with an initial target of 865 passings.
Midco representatives updated the Sherburne County Board of Commissioners on April 1 about completed projects, current work and planned builds in the county and described interest in the federal/state broadband funding opportunity that Midco expects to apply for.
Ellie Burrows, government relations manager for Midco, told the board the company is “getting close to wrapping up the projects that we have left that are currently planned” and summarized recent builds that have expanded the company’s footprint in Sherburne County. Burrows said Midco’s Livonia 3 project is scheduled to start in June 2025 with 74 passings and aims to launch service by the end of 2025, weather permitting. The board heard that the total ARPA partnership project costs for Midco and county/township partners were stated as $2,600,000 and that township partnership dollars were $35,000.
Burrows said Midco’s broader investment in Sherburne County over the past five years includes more than 10,000 passings and “over $33,000,000” in combined investment (private capital plus ARPA and other funds). Midco also summarized earlier RDOF and private capital projects the company completed in Santiago and Palmer townships and other service areas.
On federal/state funding opportunities, Burrows said, “BEAD is the hot topic in the broadband world,” and that Midco is preapproved to participate in that program in Minnesota. She reported the application is open and due April 21 and that Midco is analyzing areas in Sherburne County for BEAD partnership; as of the afternoon of the meeting Midco’s team had identified about 865 passings they would include in an application and said that number was increasing as staff refined the plan.
Board members thanked Midco for the partnership and for participating in ARPA projects that expanded coverage and boosted parking-lot Wi-Fi at county library locations. Midco said it remains open to future partnerships with the county and local jurisdictions as statewide rules and funding timelines evolve.
The board did not take formal action on the update; it was presented as information.