RS Fiber Communities Recognized by LMC

ST. PAUL, MN – The ten cities that make up a portion of the RS Fiber Cooperative received the “City of Excellence Award” at the League of Minnesota Cities Conference held recently in St. Paul. The award, presented June 16, recognized the communities of Brownton, Buffalo Lake, Fairfax, Gaylord, Gibbon, Green Isle, Lafayette, New Auburn, Stewart and Winthrop for their collaboration in working to bring high-speed broadband Internet to their communities.

According to the League of Minnesota Cities, the award is given in three separate population categories. To be considered for the “City of Excellence Award,” cities must self-nominate a project, program or initiative that was administered to achieve one or more of the following: improvement of the quality of a city service, development of an effective or innovative way to solve an old or common problem, modification of a program from another community or organization to fit city needs, discovery of a way to save the city money without compromising service results, and/or creative involvement of city staff or citizens in making a decision.

The RS Fiber entry emphasized the collaboration among the participating 10 cities and 17 townships to provide access to affordable and reliable high-speed Internet service for their residents by forming a cooperative. The nomination states, “The cities developed grassroots support for the project by hosting more than 150 meetings and by personally contacting hundreds of residents, local businesses, and government officials.” When the project is completed in 2021, thousands of city and rural households and businesses will be able to connect to the high-speed fiber-optic network.