Goodhue County has leftover funding for broadband expansion

The Goodhue County Board of Commissioners will have additional dollars to invest in an additional round of rural broadband projects after the largest project from the previous round of funding and several other pre-planned expenses came in significantly under budget.

Last fall, the board voted to allocate $277,733 in funding under the American Rescue Plan Act for a Nuvera Communications project to bring broadband to parts of Belle Creek, Cannon Falls, Leon and Vasa Townships, leaving approximately $200,000 in the coffers for future projects.

The Board had specifically hoped that this funding could help to support a potential broadband project which Hiawatha Broadband Communications had envisioned for the Wacouta area. However, the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development decided not to move forward with supporting that project.

In addition to the $200,000 left on the bottom line, Finance Director Lucas Dahling said that an additional $63,077 in dedicated broadband funding is available, $12,000 after reconstruction of Goodhue County’s website redesign came as less expensive than anticipated and the remainder after Nuvera’s Vasa Township project came in under budget.

Questioned by Commissioner Brad Anderson, Dahling said that while the Board need not necessarily be in a hurry to spend that additional funding, it would make sense to move forward with another round of funding soon if funding rural broadband remains a Board priority.

“We don’t want to hold off on spending this money if we don’t need to,” he said. “My opinion is we have the funds available, this wasn’t levy dollars. If the Board wishes to continue supporting broadband projects, it would make sense to continue supporting those.”

Nearly $200,000 in additional ARPA contingency funds also appear to have become available after funding for the cost of hiring several employees, most notably the County’s Outreach and Communications Specialist, came in well under budget.

The cost of the Outreach and Communications Specialist position alone was overestimated by roughly $140,000, which Dahling attributed to an overestimation of the position’s salary and also to the decision to use levy dollars to fund half of the position.

While roughly half of those ARPA contingency dollars are set to be spent on improvements to the Goodhue County Government Center, the remaining total of roughly $200,000 could be coupled with dollars devoted to broadband for a round of over $450,000 in broadband aid.

Even with the recent funding for rural broadband, Goodhue County ranks behind a majority of peers when it comes to rural broadband connectivity, ranking 51 out of 87 Minnesota Counties in the Blandin Foundation’s ranking of broadband access.

According to the Blandin Foundation, a Grand Rapids-based nonprofit devoted to community and economic development in rural Minnesota, Goodhue County remains an area of “haves and have-nots,” with nearly 20% of residents lacking access to quality, high-speed broadband.

In total, the Blandin Foundation reports that as of last year, more than 3,500 county residents lack broadband access with speeds of up to 100 Mbps download and 20 Mpbs upload. Blandin estimates that getting to full rural broadband coverage could cost around $33 million.

While Red Wing has long been a hotspot of high speed internet, it’s rural parts of Goodhue County, including the areas surrounding Kenyon and Wanamingo, which have lacked high speed internet and which will be the most challenging and expensive to connect.

Though she represents the city of Red Wing, Board Member Linda Flanders said that supporting rural broadband has always been a priority for her, as she believes that greater opportunities for connectivity strengthen the whole of Goodhue County.

"I know there is a large amount of money coming from the state for broadband to Minnesota, but I also think we’re left in the county with the most difficult areas to try and reach,” Flanders said. “Those are the areas that are going to be the most expensive, which is why nobody’s done it so far, but those are the areas which have none or only very limited broadband.”