Pine County officials and internet providers map final push to close broadband gaps

Pine County commissioners and representatives from at least five internet providers met in person and online on Oct. 12 for an update on a multi-year effort to expand broadband service across the rural county.

County Board Chair Josh Moore said the meeting’s goal was “to see what it would take to get it done,” and to gather clearer, provider-level timelines and maps showing where fiber and fixed wireless builds will finish. “When I get an email or open up a paper or something and look at it and it says we’re bottom in the state of Minnesota, this county, I look geographically at it and we have a lot of struggles,” Moore said.

The board and providers reviewed projects funded since 2021 — including local ARPA allocations, a Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) coronavirus award targeted to low- and moderate-income census tracts, congressional directed spending routed through USDA ReConnect, and multiple Minnesota Office of Broadband Development border-to-border awards — and discussed the remaining “hard to serve” areas, permitting and construction-season constraints, and how to measure remaining need.

Leslie Sautter, Pine County economic development coordinator, told the commissioners she began documenting county broadband work when she joined the county in 2021 and that the county has since layered provider coverage, RDOF awards and funded projects into the county GIS. “We will highlight our major accomplishments, identify additional…