After Girl Scout Troop 305 led the Pledge of Allegiance on Monday night, the Grand Forks City Council got down to business.
The major news of the evening was the presentation by Access Consulting from Missoula, Mont., hired by the Base Realignment Impact Committee to compile a telecommunication accessibility survey of Grand Forks city and county.
Paul DeWolfe of Access gave the presentation and informed the council that in the city of Grand Forks there is good competition for both phone and broadband internet services as well as various options for cell phone plans and coverage. The consulting firm had one criticism for the city, and that was a redundancy and lack of diversity of high-end services.
DeWolfe said once you left the city and moved into rural areas of Grand Forks County, the services aren't as good. He noted that cell phone service on the western half of the county was poor and broadband access was limited.
The council was advised to look into the area's rural cell phone, broadband and radio coverage. DeWolfe suggested they lobby the Legislature, identify co-development opportunities within public works and organize their efforts with the city, the Grand Forks Air Force Base and the county to make these things happen.
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In other news
Mayor Brown declared Friday, Dec. 14 "All City Jeans Day." That day, offices are encouraged to allow their employees to wear jeans to work and collect a goodwill offering that will be donated to "Ali's Boundless Playground," a playground that will be accessible to disabled children. Grand Forks Sertoma Club aims to raise $200,000 for the project by February. More information can be found at
Brown also announced that the painting of the parking ramp on North Fourth Street is scheduled for July 2008. Until then, all the broken light bulbs have been replaced to increase visibility in the ramp.
The last council meeting of the year will be Dec. 17.
