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| The Mt. Baker Foothills Communications Task Force is dedicated to the goal of bringing high-speed Internet and cell phone service to the Mt. Baker School District area. This group has been working toward this goal since 2007. |
| Task Force Members: | ||||
| Linda Dorsett, Envision Consulting (Chair) | Blair Murray, Tin Rock | Dan Mahar, Resident | ||
| Anna Ehnmark, Technology Alliance Group | Bob Bromley, Mayor of Sumas | Dave Halliday, Crossroads Grocery | ||
| Betsy Gaines, Resident | Bob Warshawer, Black Rock Cable | David Stahlheim, Whatcom County | ||
| Bill Coleman, Nooksack Tribe | Carole Macdonald, Foothills Chamber | Dodd Snodgrass, Port of Bellingham | ||
| Gordon Rogers, Council of Governments | Holly O'Neil, Crossroads Consulting | Jack Veenstra, IT-Strategy | ||
| Jan Eskola, Glacier Water District | Jeremy Standen, Resident | Lou Piotrowski, Resident | ||
| Nancy Jordan, NW Economic Council | Pete Kremen, County Executive | Phil Cloward, Community Development Assn. | ||
| Rebecca Boonstra, Visitor's Center | Richard Banel, Resident | Richard Gantman, Mt. Baker Schools | ||
| Rob Staveland, Aiki Homes | Russ Angus, Angus Associates | Ryan Reifschneider, Resident | ||
| Sean Wilson, Citizens Unite | Steve Jilk, Whatcom PUD | |||
| March 27, 2010 | We received word today that WA-RBC did get included in the request the round two funding. This grant application was submitted by NoaNet today. We will post resutls as soon as they are known. |
| March 17, 2010 | We have finally received word about the WA-RBC grant request for high speed internet funding. For reasons that are not entirely clear, their request has been denied. WA-RBC (in conjunction with the Tulalip Tribe) collaborated with NoaNet (a statewide consortium) for round two funding. Sixteen hours before the grant request was to be submitted, the Tribe abruptly pulled out - entirely. That grant request was supposed to bring the public access line to the proposed East County Resource Center in Kendall and into Maple Falls. We are no longer included in that grant request. There was not enough time to amend the grant and withdraw the Tribal involvement, so our area was simply deleted. This news is very disappointing, but it will not stop us. Another pool of money is scheduled to open within the next month or so. Between now and then, it will be to our advantage to cooperate with the State in two projects they are initiating. The first is a mapping project. They are trying to identify all of the unserved or underserved areas in the State. The second is a speed test – to find out just how pathetic our connection speeds are. |
| Jan 31, 2010 | There is no news yet regarding the WA-BBC grant request. Funding decisions were originally expected in November, then in December, and now we are still waiting to here some news. Check back here for updates. |
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The Washington Rural Broadband Cooperative (WA-RBC) has submitted a proposal for Phase 1 of a project that would bring extremely high bandwidth to 14 community anchor points in Snohomish, Skagit, and Whatcom counties. Five of these anchor points would be in the Foothills. Click here for more info. |
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Executive Summary of WA-RBC project (PDF) |
| White Paper on Technology in the Mt. Baker Foothills (PDF) | |
| Article published in Puget Sound Business Journal (PDF) | |
| Article published in Grange newsletter (PDF) | |
| Glacier Springs Broadband Petition (PDF) | |
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Letter of support from Governor Gregoire (PDF) |
| Letter of support from Senator Murray (PDF) | |
| Letter of support from Rep. Larsen (PDF) | |
| Letter of support from County Executive Pete Kremen (PDF) | |
| Letter of support from Rick Gantman (PDF) | |
| Letter of support from NW Economic Council (PDF) |