OLIVIA -- The Internet is serious business in Bird Island, where business and community leaders have been working with the Blandin Foundation for more than a year to promote and expand broadband Internet capacity.
Thanks to a grant from the Blandin Foundation, the effort will soon grow to include all of Renville County.
The foundation recently announced that it is awarding $15,000 to Renville County to participate it its Get Broadband initiative.
It's all about economic development, according to Pam Matchie-Thiede. She is working with Bird Island on the Get Broadband project and will now manage the county-wide expansion. Broadband Internet capacity is a critical part of the infrastructure needed by modern businesses, she said.
To build that infrastructure, Bird Island has been working with Internet providers while also working to educate business owners and the public about how to take advantage of what broadband Internet can offer.
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The Blandin funds will be used to do the same on a county-wide basis. The Get Broadband initiative will host "how to'' community seminars in the county.
The project will also help establish a series of Internet cafés in communities around the county. It will also host a demonstration of broadband Internet capabilities at the Renville County Fair in August.
Similar efforts undertaken in Bird Island during the last year have shown important results. The four Internet providers in the community have been working together to help the community expand the broadband infrastructure, said Matchie-Thiede.
Also, business owners and residents have become increasingly aware of the importance of broadband technology, and are putting it to use.
Matchie-Thiede said the expansion of the Get Broadband project from its start in Bird Island to a county-wide initiative is a "logical step.''
"Everything I've read about rural economic development says that what you do has to be done regionally,'' she said.
In a news release, the Blandin Foundation said that while 85 percent of the state has broadband service, less than 20 percent of individuals and institutions outside the metro area actually use broadband.
