Visitors and staff at the Sherburne History Center will now have complete access to high-speed Internet, thanks to a cooperative effort between the county and the Blandin Foundation.

 

Two weeks ago, a project funded by Blandin and the county was completed, bringing broadband to the center.

 

As part of the Blandin Foundation regional partners program, the county received $75,000 in broadband related grants earlier this year.

 

“We had a community vision meeting this spring and talked about potential projects,” says Sherburne County Assistant Administrator Weber. “This was one of the project. We applied for $10,000 from Blandin and the county IT department had matching money in the budget.”

 

Then it was up to the county to follow through. IT Director Brian Kamman says the Becker public works facility, located nearby, already had broadband. In July, a trench was dug along an access road to bring lines to the History Center.

 

“We had to run a fiberoptic line between the two buildings,” he says. “Then we wired the internal access points and installed the equipment to communicate across those fiber lines for public wi-fi.”

Now the History Center has high speed Internet and wi-fi throughout the building.

 

That’s good news for staff and visitors who need to do research or use the Internet for meetings.

 

History Center Director Mike Brubaker says the lack of Internet in the past was a big issue. 

 

“We used to be able to rent out this facility to groups like Xcel Energy. But as the technology advanced, they wanted to start showing programs through Skype and other online sources,” he says.

 

“Our system was too slow, so they stopped using the History Center. Now we’re going to be able to enhance that and bring more people back into the facility.”

 

The lack of Internet access has also been a problem for regular programs, like the monthly genealogy program where people search their family history.

 

“People who were doing ancestral searches would do their research here and then go home or somewhere else to get connectivity,” says Kamman. “Now they can stay here and be more efficient.”

 

The History Center did have Internet before the recent project. But Brubaker says it was limited to one room and was very slow.

 

“If we wanted to access Internet in this meeting room, I had to bring a smart card from home and plug it in here,” he says.

 

But even if that worked, the speed was too slow for most Internet users.

 

Kamman says the building blocks cellular signals, which prevents visitors from getting online.

 

“People who would bring in cellular cards with their laptops might get great signals in the parking lot,” he says. “But once they come in this building they wouldn’t be able to get a strong signal.”

 

Now with broadband and wi-fi, the History Center is fully connected with a speed of 10 megabits.

 

“It’s a decent speed for the size of the building and what they’re doing here,” says Kamman. “It can definitely handle the people that are working here, along with the events and meetings that would be happening.”

 

Brubaker says he and staff fare already planing to take advantage of the improved technology.

 

“The broadband is going to increase our speed so much,” he says. “All of our photos have been scanned into our computers. Now we can put them on our website and create virtual exhibits for anybody in the world who wants to see them. It’s going to be very cool.”

 

Weber says it’s also going to be good for the community and bring in revenues for the History Center. Now the meeting room, with a capacity for about 75 people, can be used for its intended purpose - with full Internet access.

 

“From the county’s perspective, we had this  incredible community asset that wasn’t being taken full advantage of because of lack of Internet,” he says. “This is a beautiful training room that can be used community-wide.”

 

The next step is replacing two public-use computer workstations in the library with new technology. Those are also covered by the Blandin Foundation grant and should be installed in January.

 

Weber says there are five more broadband-related projects on the county’s to-do list coming up in early 2016.