I was in Duluth this weekend for the MN Voices Online Unconference (I blogged it here) and had the opportunity to meet Danna MacKenzie, the Cook County information systems director in Grand Marais. She was featured in a Strib article a couple of weeks ago about MN communities who are “lining up for part of the $7.2 billion in federal recovery money designated for broadband projects.” Northfield is about to follow suit, as at Monday’s Council meeting, Northfield’s IT Director Melissa Reeder will ask the Council to appoint a workgroup to pursue a federal stimulus grant application for a Fiber to the Premise (FTTP) project. (continued)
We spent the first half of this week’s show discussing the flood of charges from area prosecutors aimed at 1) a group of eight alleged heroin dealers; 2) Mayor Lee Lansing, and 3) Victor Summa.
The November 6 open house will provide an informative, interactive opportunity for residents to learn more about fiber optics; what the technology can do for an individual, family, business or community; alternative methods of financing the infrastructure; and ownership and service provider scenarios.
In today’s Star Tribune, there is an article about the City of Monticello’s efforts to make itself one of the most wired communities in the country. Apparently, the effort has been complicated by a lawsuit.
According to the city’s attorney, when Monticello asked TDS Telecom to provide fiber-optic connections to every home and business in the community as a means of stimulating economic development and increasing the quality of life, the company refused. The city then held a referendum in which about 75 percent of the voters approved spending $25 million in revenue bonds to create a city-owned system.
TDS filed its lawsuit the day before the revenue bonds were to be issued. The company claims that it was willing to work with the city, but couldn’t come to terms. The lawsuit contends that municipalities shouldn’t be allowed to use revenue bonds to create fiber-optic infrastructure.
There have been several conversations, by both public and private entities, in Northfield over the past few years about making Northfield one of the most wired communities in the world. If I recall correctly, then Council and EDA member Dixon Bond suggested that it could be considered like any other utility, and provided publicly or privately.
It appears, at least to me, that no group stepped up to provide leadership in the effort. Perhaps now we’ll have to wait for the lawsuit to be settled.
We started yammering about the need for Northfield to belly up to the fiber optic bar back in April of 2006 on podcast #15. Since then, we’ve blogged it many times (do a LoGroNo fiber search), often in frustration.
Economic Development Manager Charlene Coulombe-Fiore and the EDA facilitated a field trip to Chaska, MN to talk with their City Administrator and other staff in charge of planning and development. Riding in a Care-Tenders van packed to maximum capacity were EDA members Rick Estenson, Dave Van Wylen, Victor Summa, Marty Benson; City Councilors Jim Pokorney and Scott Davis; Planning Commission members Ron Griffith and myself; and City staff Brian O’Connell, Joel Walinski, Charlene Coulombe-Fiore plus Kathy Felbrugge from the Northfield Chamber. Charlene prepared a comparison of the two communities, based on demographic and economic data, for our review before the trip.
There are many similarities between Northfield and Chaska in terms of size, history, relationship to the metro area, and other factors, as the above comparison demonstrates. There are significant differences, too, but I was interested in having the discussion because Chaska has managed to keep a consistent vision and approach to both planning and economic development for more than a decade, and it shows. Continue reading Learning From Other Communities
He sent me this picture of an installer named Charlie from Jaguar Communications wiring up his no longer ‘secret underground bunker’ last week at his house on Circle Lake. He’s getting the whole package: phone, TV, and internet access. I blogged about local fiber infrasructure and Jaguar Communications last August and April.
In September, the Northfield News ran a story, City gets grant to study fiber optics, about the City of Northfield receiving a $25K matching grant from the Blandin Foundation “to conduct what Information Technology Director Melissa Reeder termed an open network feasibility study… A request for bids will likely go out this fall and take four to six weeks to return.”
Anyone have an update? A search on the city’s web site for the word ‘fiber’ turns up nothing, and I couldn’t find anything on the EDA portion of the site.
We’d been using Charter at home for a few years but I wanted faster upload speeds at an affordable rate. So when we were getting ready to move, I ordered the 6.0 MBps down/3.0 MBps up basic residential service from NorthfieldWiFi ($49.99/mo). When Peter Seebach (who purchased our house) heard about the faster options, he also ordered it. I took the photos below a few weeks ago as we were getting ready to move. Click to enlarge.
Nate Lyon is the owner of NorthfieldWiFi. He and his wife Tabitha Lyon (both on ladder in left photo) moved to town a couple years ago when she was transferred to the local Target store. They bought a house (we’re now neighbors across the pond) and Nate started his business. He now has hundreds of residential and business customers.
The photos above show how unobtrusive the installation is. A small dish on the roof, a black cable tucked out of sight whenever possible, a small ‘modem’ inside the premise.
What the photos don’t show is the great service. The installation on our former house was tricky since the roof is high and steep. In a mixup with Peter over the meaning of the phrase “install in Griff’s office,” Nate cheerfully did a complete reinstall a week later to move the location of the cable coming into the house from the second floor to the first floor. And on the townhouse where we’re living, a squirrel chewed through the cable in the first week and he did a rerouting/repair of our connection. Through it all, he’s been extremely quick to respond via both phone and email. No full disclosure needed, as he’s not a blogger (yet!) and hasn’t told me of any IPO planned.
Yesterday the EDA/City Fiberoptic Task Force met to plan their application for a technology grant from the Blandin Foundation. At the last City Council meeting, the council OK'd matching funds if the City is awarded the grant. The grant's purpose is to fund feasibility studies for deploying open networks (defined as those which "enable multiple, competitive retail providers to use the same network by purchasing access from a wholesale network owner and manager").
While the outcome of both the grant app and the study results are unknown, this is a very positive step for Northfield. Community Development Directory Brian O’Connell, who is not known to be particularly geeky, is a seasoned pro who "gets" why fiberoptic cables are significant for Northfield, and might be more accurately understood as infrastructure rather than as amenity. On a practical level, figures provided to the Task Force indicate that for many businesses in town, the cost for business-level high-speed internet is roughly 30% higher in Northfield for roughly 30% lower speeds/bandwidth compared to the metro area.
Obviously this puts Northfield's businesses at a competitive disadvantage if they rely on the internet for anything other than email and consumer web surfing.
For the long-term view, there are reams of data describing the woeful condition of US broadband compared to all other developed countries, and even many developing ones.
It’s not quite “fiber-to-Griff’s-condo”, but at least the City is moving.
I saw this utility tent across from the library last week and opened the flap. Inside was Steve Poole, one of the employees of the the St. Olaf Telephone Company. (Photo is hazy because I took it through a screened window.) Steve was working on the colleges’ fiber optic cable that runs right down Washington St., from Carleton on its way to St. Olaf. He said the Internet2 connection to the library was ready to be lit. They were just waiting for TPTB to give the go-ahead.
I asked him what he knew about Jaguar Communictions and their plans for FTTP as I’d heard a reliable rumor last week that homeowners in the Circle Lake area were being told that they’d be able to get fiber to their homes later this year. (Jaguar got a $4.6 million USDA Rural Development Loan last year to provide “…varying degrees of voice, data, and video broadband service to more than six thousand residential and business customers” in 8 southern MN counties, including Rice. More info here.) Steve said they’d be deploying it in both Dundas and Northfield soon but as far as he knew, it was strictly residential, whereas the St. Olaf Telephone Company was strictly business.
Now what we need is a Northfield blog/web page/site to keep track of all the fiber and ultra high-speed broadband developments in the area. Anyone? Anyone? Anyone?
I saw this article in the Sunday Strib: In a hurry for ultrafast Internet: Eagan sees radically accelerated access speeds as an economic development tool, and it’s looking for a company willing to provide it. And this quote:
We want to future-proof the city so economic development can continue 20 years down the road,” said Jim Moeller, a member of the city’s Technology Working Group, an advisory panel of the city’s top tech minds created to improve Eagan’s technology policy and improve its competitiveness.
We here at Locally Grown have been yapping about this for a year. Our Feb. 26 and April 28, 2006 podcasts were about it. We’ve blogged about fiber several times. The big public input forum on the Comprehensive Plan is this Tuesday, April 3, from 7 to 9 p.m. at the Northfield Armory (6th and Division Streets). Can everyone remember to put it on your small group butcher paper’s list of what’s needed, puhleeeeeease?
My colleagues, Tracy “Queen of the Dark Fiber” Davis and Griff “Ultra High-Speed to my Condo” Wigley, have been suggesting, loudly and vigorously, for sometime that the key to economic development in Northfield is high-speed internet access. Northfield has the potential for this high-tech utility they say, and we only need to harness the potential in order to lure the companies, and jobs, of the future to our community.
Based on an article in the March 7th Wall Street Journal, there might be another important feature in our potential utility infrastructure that we should harness in order to lure future economic development.
According to “One Tiny Town Becomes Internet Age Power Point”, Microsoft, Yahoo and Intuit are building new computer-data centers in Quincy, Washington. The quality of life of an area with unspoiled natural beauty is one attraction, as is the availability of reasonably priced housing, and the community, thanks to a state program, is making a $100 million investment in a fiber network that certainly is important to these businesses. However, the biggest draw was the two municipally owned dams that generate electricity for the town.
Now, Northfield is further from Seattle than Quincy, and the Cannon River is not quite the Columbia River, but would it be possible to generate sufficient energy to power a “micro business park” on the west side of downtown?
During this week’s show, Ross, Tracy and I touch on miscellaneous Northfield-related issues, including the fiber task force, the Comprehensive Plan, and school district class sizes at the elementary level.
We also got a phone call after the show ended, which just shocked us. (Click photo to enlarge.) Details on that news forthcoming.
We seek your comments and suggestions. Attach a comment to this blog post, use the Contact Us page to send us email, or submit an audio comment. See the show archives for audio of other episodes.
We seek your comments and suggestions. Attach a comment to this blog post, use the Contact Us page to send us email, or submit an audio comment. See the show archives for audio of other episodes.
Our home cable modem died over the weekend and when Robbie stopped at Charter’s office in Lakeville today to get it replaced, she was told that we could upgrade from 5 Mbps to 10 Mbps service for our internet connection. Better yet, especially for content producers like me, upload speeds double from 512 KB to 1.0 Mbps when you upgrade.
Did I upgrade? Is the bear Catholic? Does the Pope do it in the woods?
Of course, this is only 1/10th of the speed that I need, want and deserve since there is a fiber optic river of pure economic gold running through town.So let’s start the drumbeat for FTTx:
At this morning’s EDA meeting at City Hall, members had this item on their agenda (see page 6 of the packet pdf on the Sept. 28 meeting page): “The EDA will review the draft agenda and purpose of the fiber network task force meeting.” Carleton’s Joel Cooper was invited to the table to give an overview. And I was allowed to contribute a couple of comments. I reiterated the points I made in my Lack of fiber in Northfield’s economic diet blog post about this two weeks ago about “Attracting and retaining talent,” especially college students who’ve graduated; and the City of Burnsville’s push for fiber as a means of supporting/developing their medical technology industry. So I’m thrilled with this development and delighted that Locally Grown’s own Tracy Davis is leading the initial charge. You rock, Tracy!
L to R in the photo (click to enlarge): Tracy Davis, Dixon Bond, Joel Cooper, Rick Estenson, Mark Moors, Galen Malecha, Deanna Kuennen.
I know that the City set up a Task Force to look into this, and other communication technologies topics. I’m wondering if anyone can update us on their progress.
I wonder, too. The City Council created a community media task force in May of 2005 and put Councillor Scott Davis in charge of it.
It was to have delivered its report by Oct. 31, 2005. See this blog post I wrote for N.org which includes the full text of the final motion.
We briefly mentioned on our Feb. 10 show that the task force had met once recently but I don’t remember any other discussion about it.
I’m wondering:
What have been all the reasons for the delay in the report? Have those reasons been documented and reported to the Council?
Who’s on the committee?
When and where does the task force meet?
Where on the City’s website are the minutes of the task force?
How much of the $20,000 budget has been spent and for what?
Is the task force suited to study the wi-fi infrastructure issues facing the city? Burnsville, Mpls, St. Paul and now Eden Prairie have all recently launched such task forces. The issues are complex and many. And it’s not just wifi. Wimax and FTTH/FTTP (fiber to the home/premises) need to be examined, too.
What’s the status of the roughly $500k that was sitting in the cable TV fund? The City’s new $60,000+ website was funded from it. I seem to remember that the Council authorized a temporary loan from that fund to pay for something else.
What’s the status of funding for NTV, the “non-profit organization operating the public, education, and government cable access“?
Back in April, we did a show on Northfield’s ultra high-speed broadband infrastructure with guest, Joel Cooper, Carleton’s Director of Information Technology Services. I think we should do another one, as municipal constipation may be setting in.
Preparing for increased convergence of technology and media, Century College in White Bear Lake opened a new technology center featuring lightning-fast connections… He said the school developed the Kopp Center over the past five years with the idea that television will eventually be Internet-based and that as the Internet expands there will be more desktop video, more Internet TV, more bi-directional education, and so on.
sBurnsville wants to make sure inadequate, high-cost Internet doesn’t slow growth, said Council Member Dan Gustafson. “We’re very focused on the medical technologies in Burnsville, and fiber is going to be very important for that industry.”
Apple announced its TV/movie distribution service this week (BW article) following a similar Amazon announcement recently.
So what does all this mean? I think it means that the City of Northfield should examine more closely how ultra high-speed broadband infrastructure can help it achieve two of the three main strategies that are laid out in the recently approved 2006 economic development plan:
1) Diversifying Northfield’s economic base The targeted industries include medical: “Healthcare/medical. Industry activities range from direct patient care to diagnostic services to medical research.” If Burnsville sees the need for fiber for its medical technology industry, shouldn’t Northfield?
3) Attracting and retaining talent Isn’t it likely that the college students we want to retain and others we want to attract would be enticed in part by the benefits offered by our fiber infrastructure? In the Dallas suburb of Keller, in Tampa, and in Huntington Beach, California, Verizon is rolling outFTTP (fiber-to-the-premises) for local customers “… as it can make applications like video chat and conferencing, digital movie downloads, and interactive multi-player games a part of their daily lives.” See Verizon’s FIOS website for more.
It’s time Northfield got serious about these developments. (Blandin is having a conference in October: Next Generation Broadband. City officials should attend.) Nothing has happened with city-wide wi-fi since the NDDC held a forum on it many months ago and I fear nothing is going to happen with fiber. (Yes, I’d like to see fiber brought to Northfield Crossing since I’m going to be living there next spring. Plus, I think it would help them sell more condos in this current real estate downturn.)
I plan to visit an upcoming EDA meeting and make my sentiments known. In the meantime, make your sentiments about this issue known by attaching comments here.
Issues covered in episode #15 of Locally Grown, recorded Friday (April 28): Northfield’s ultra high-speed broadband infrastructure with guest, Joel Cooper, Carleton’s Director of Information Technology Services.
Last year, the colleges brought fiber to their campuses for Internet2. The conduit containing the fiber winds its way through the middle of downtown. Could this infrastructure be made available to businesses, insititutions and residents to purchase, thereby providing Northfield with an economic development opportunity that’s rare for a town its size?
Click the play button to listen (30 minutes), or download the MP3 File, or subscribe to the feed, or subscribe with iTunes. Join the ISSUES discussion list to continue the conversation on these and other issues. Attach a comment to give us feedback. See the Locally Grown page for previous episodes and more on the show.
kiffi summa: Our mothers consider the ‘bunched panties’ remark too squalid to pass either their sainted lips, or those of their darling daughters… and seriously doubt whether it was said during your father’s time!
Jane Moline: Griff: you really didn’t know my mother and how do you even know if I wear panties?
Griff Wigley: Jane/Kiffi, I did some family of origin research and it turns out your mothers actually said “A stitch in time saves nine” and “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” about 3-4 times more often than...
kiffi summa: Jane: Both our Mom’s were smart, and they knew about the problems with “borrowing trouble” i.e don’t stir up problems that are non existent; there’s enough current problems to deal with, and even some of...
Jane Moline: I can’t believe I have to bring up my mother’s advice: DON’T GO BORROWING TROUBLE! If some women want to join the fire department in Northfield, we must be afraid that our fire department MIGHT respond like North...
Vicki Dilley: How many lives can we even begin to count that have touched by the Youth Exchange program? Northfield has been involved in Youth Exchange since 1969 when we hosted our first student…since then 100′s of High School...
Tom Durkin: This event supports one of the crown jewels of the Northfield Rotary Club – the Youth Exchange Program. Northfield can be proud that we send out more than fifteen students annually for year abroad study programs. We also host several...
john george: Kathie- I knew I was sticking my neck out on that one!
Kathie Galotti: Geez John. Don’t get Griff restarted on the geese!
john george: Yes, more beaches would certainly accomodate more geese. We have to remember to be waterfowl friendly.
Susan Hvistendahl: I totally agree with you re the need for more beaches in Northfield, having just returned from a week in Puerto Vallarta. Could have had rum punches there but….well, after we visited a local tequila distillery and got to...
Bright Spencer: Oh, you both look so happy! Thanks for sharing. More pics please!
kiffi summa: Griff: whither goest thy right arm if it starts to “whither” (sic) ? sorry; couldn’t resist… stuck at home with a bad knee provides way too much time on computer!
Bright Spencer: i’ve been looking thru a site, crazyguyonabike.com that has lots of journals and photos from around the world.
jane fenton: Congrats, Griff! That’s my son Cliff in the orange hat. He’s revamped the recycling bin prototype. You should see it!
Griff Wigley: Don, I’ll keep ping pong in mind. I’d hate to have my right arm start to whither from a lack of racquetball. In the meantime, I’m trying to excite as many Northfielders as I can about mountain biking. I’ll...
john george: Griff- Iris will have to work real hard to keep you in focus on everything else. I shutter to think where this could go.
Griff Wigley: Name: The Local Joint Description: A handmade and vintage collective in Northfield, MN. COLLECTING.CREATING.COLLABORAT ING. Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/TheLoc alJoint Nfld News: Store to open in former ‘digs’ space
David Beimers: Hmmm… fans? air conditioners? ice cream?
Jessica Paxton: I know. But I don’t wanna spill the (cool) beans!
Megan Tsui: Edward, Sorry you weren’t able to attend. We’ll be posting notes from the meeting on the NEC website and if you send me your email, I’ll make sure you get a copy! If you (or anyone else!) would like to chat about it...
Edward Smith: I wanted to attend this, but was unable. Does anyone know if there will be a summary posted anywhere?
Kathie Galotti: My kid had a pretty decent AP Environmental Science class 2 years ago….he’s not a great math/science student, but this one got him interested in at least knowing enough science to create good policies. I remember...
Paul Zorn: A few years ago one of my daughters spent a year working in Copenhagen, largely in an office setting. All desks in her office could be raised or lowered to permit either standing or sitting positions. I have no idea whether such...
Griff Wigley: In today’s Strib: Office-dwellers stand up to ‘sitting disease’ Dr. James Levine has reviewed the statistics: One in three Minnesota adults is either diabetic or pre-diabetic, and one in four is obese. And he thinks...
Bright Spencer: The All Pro Game last Sunday between the AFC and the NFC was so enjoyable. The stess, the anger, the anxiety all gone…well I didn’t watch all of it, as I rarely do watch an entire game, usually just the beginning and...
Griff Wigley: Today’s Strib: Hockey safety goal expanded to youth In an unprecedented mid-year change, Minnesota Hockey is toughening the penalties for checking from behind and boarding. The change will affect 40,000 hockey players in the...
Bright Spencer: I like hockey and all sports very much. I was a star basketball player in my day. I don’t remember anyone suffering any major injuries in all my hs and college days. I feel certain that coach’s know who does what and...
john george: You are correct. That is why I didn’t allow my children to attack the character of their siblings just to support their position. There do need to be some kind of ground rules in any discussion so as to keep individual...
kiffi summa: The issue could be considered to be: what is “conflict”, and what are two sides of a discussion… see #33 re: the Mayor’s admonition to Peter Dahlen at the joint Council/ChartComm meeting. I don’t see how...
john george: Kiffi- This is a good article, and I agree with most of it. Just thinking about my kids in their youth, there was always some conflict between them, but our goal as parents wasn’t to force them into some weiner form but to help...
kiffi summa: A very interesting article in the Jan.30th New Yorker magazine on the nature of the dynamics of creative discussion; it’s entitled “Groupthink; the brainstorming myth”. Based on studies done by a psych professor at...
Griff Wigley: Kiffi/Kathie, I didn’t have that reaction. But I’ve put up a new blog post to discuss it and everything else related to the Fire Department so let’s shift the discussion there.
Kathie Galotti: I read Betsey’s blog and, like most of Betsey’s blog entries, found it well-written and making a very good point. Though I agree that geographic districts aren’t the only way to represent different constituencies,...
john george: Griff- The NN editorial presents the difference between geographic representation and ideological representation. Right now, the wards establish geographic representation. With this approach, depending upon the voter turnout, a person...
kiffi summa: I hope that people will use the link here on LG to read the current posting by Councilor Buckheit on her blog, re: wards versus all at-large, and take the opportunity to comment. Once again, the NFNews has not given a very well...
Griff Wigley: Nfld News editorial: Keep the current ward system intact
Sean Hayford Oleary: In any case, this issue doesn’t seem like it needs to be another opportunity to dis/agree with the current council. Regardless of how focused on the downtown (or not) they are, it’s clear this change would not...
Griff Wigley: In today’s NY Times: Turning to Kettlebells to Ease Back Pain Kettlebells, cast-iron weights that have been used for centuries to train Russian soldiers and athletes, appear to be a promising therapy for back and neck pain, new...
Sandy Vesledahl: UPDATE ON RHONDA: We are very happy to report that Rhonda was adopted over the weekend by a local family. Rhonda’s new mom is a Family Counselor and Rhonda will be going to her office with her and helping with her clients. So...
Megan Tsui: Griff, The NEC is moving forward with the idea of a non-profit Coworking Incubator/Accelerator space. Megan
Megan Tsui: What do you think? Come to the Community Dialogue and tell us! January 31st from 2 to 4 pm at the Archer House lower level conference room. Share your ideas, thoughts, and dreams about a Coworking Incubator/Accelerator space in...
kiffi summa: I would hope the City’s Historic Preservation Commission would explore this option, and the appropriateness/allowability for use on properties within the Historic District. Thanks, Jim.
Jim Haas: I was reading a story by Porter Fox about his visit to Copenhagen. He mentioned in passing that the city is vigilant about removing graffiti using high-pressure washers with ice crystals as a mild abrasive. I did a little rudimentary...
kiffi summa: The LWV observer reports are meant to be a summary of actions taken, not a ‘blow by blow’ transcript. This is the reason that anyone deeply interested should watch the meeting for themself, if they want a full...
I was in Duluth this weekend for the MN Voices Online Unconference (I blogged it here) and had the opportunity to meet Danna MacKenzie, the Cook County information systems director in Grand Marais. She was featured in a Strib article a couple of weeks ago about MN communities who are “lining up for part of the $7.2 billion in federal recovery money designated for broadband projects.” Northfield is about to follow suit, as at Monday’s Council meeting, Northfield’s IT Director Melissa Reeder will ask the Council to appoint a workgroup to pursue a federal stimulus grant application for a Fiber to the Premise (FTTP) project. (continued)
We started yammering about the need for Northfield to belly up to the fiber optic bar back in 
Economic Development Manager Charlene Coulombe-Fiore and the EDA facilitated a field trip to 
Yesterday the EDA/City Fiberoptic Task Force met to plan their application for a 
Back in 
Apple announced its TV/movie distribution service this week (
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