District 4 and District 6 Board of Director Elections

As a cooperative, Paul Bunyan Communications is governed by a seven-person member-elected Board of Directors.  In 2023, there were two Board of Directors positions up for election representing Districts 4 and 6

Article III, Section 3 of your Cooperative’s Bylaws requires any member interested in serving as a Director to submit a candidate packet to the Cooperative headquarters at least 25 business days prior to the Caucus Election date.

The deadline to submit applications for the 2023 director positions up for election was Tuesday, February 14.

District 4

The current director for District 4 is Brian Nicklason and he was the only applicant.  As a result, his uncontested director re-election to the board for District 4 will be ratified by the members at the annual meeting.

District 6

The current director for District 6 is Glenda Martin and she was the only applicant.  As a result, her uncontested director re-election to the board for District 6 will be ratified by the members at the annual meeting.

Paul Bunyan Communications is excited to announce the winners of the 7th Pick-it Bowl Challenge, a free online contest for participants to pick the winners for the 2022-23 College Bowl games for a chance to win a credit on a Paul Bunyan Communications account.  There were 498 participants.

Winners of the 7^th Paul Bunyan Communications Pick-it Bowl Challenge:

1^st Place- $500 credit  Barb Gray, Bemidji, MN

2^nd Place- $250 credit Trinity Anderson, Grand Rapids, MN

3^rd Place- $100 credit  Ryan Doheny, Brooklyn Park, MN

4^th Place- $50 credit    Terry Schmitt, Bemidji, MN

5^th Place- $50 credit    Teresa Tilden

6^th Place- $50 credit    Rachel Robins

7^th Place- $50 credit    Tim Mountain, Bemidji, MN

8^th Place- $50 credit    Kacie Pitzl, Blackduck, MN

9^th Place- $50 credit    Mary Burt, Jacobson, MN

10^th Place- $50 credit  Dustin Ames

Random $100 Credit Prize Winner:  Norman Mattson, Cohasset, MN (254^th Place)

The next Paul Bunyan Communications Pick-It Challenge is March Mania for the College Division 1 Men’s Basketball Tournament.

The GigaZone Gaming Championship and TechXpo with special guest Apple co-founder Steve “Woz” Wozniak, a Paul Bunyan Communications Event, is set for Saturday, April 22 at the Sanford Center in Bemidji. The event will feature free gaming on various console and arcade games, numerous tournaments, door prizes, and a new TechXpo that will showcase various ways the latest in technology is being utilized right here in northern Minnesota.    All the fun is free.

This year’s GigaZone Gaming Championship will feature various gaming tournaments like Super Smash Bros Ultimate, Madden 23, Fortnite, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Rocket League, and more.  Registration for all tournaments will start at the Sanford Center the morning of the event, April 22 at 10 a.m. and go until full.  There is no cost to enter the tournaments.  For more information on all the gaming fun visit www.gigazonegaming.com

The GigaZone TechXpo is a new part of the event with the mission to spark excitement and create opportunities with technology by connecting students, job seekers, employers, educators, and technology enthusiasts from northern Minnesota. There are over 35 exhibitors that will be showcasing various innovation including virtual reality, drones, simulators, and much more.  For a complete list of exhibitors visit www.gigazonetechxpo.com

This one-of-a-kind event showcases Paul Bunyan Communications’ IT and web development team which custom built and integrated much of the online technology being used and leverages the speed of the GigaZone one of the largest rural all-fiber optic Gigabit networks in the country. The entire gaming event is run off a single residential GigaZone Internet connection.

“Our cooperative continues to expand one of the largest rural fiber gigabit networks in the country and that brings many advantages to our members.  The GigaZone provides extreme speed and low latency which are critical for the best online gaming experience and the GigaZone Gaming Championship showcases just that,” added Leo Anderson, Paul Bunyan Communications Technology Experience Manager.

This Paul Bunyan Communications event includes the talents of many local partners including NLFX, Accidently Cool Games, Northern Amusement, the Sanford Center, as well as support from several regional and national partners.

Paul Bunyan Communications, the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe, and the Itasca Economic Development Corporation (IEDC) are holding a sign-up day for the Affordable Connectivity Program, on Monday, February 13 from 1-6 p.m. at the Lone Eagle Community Center in Ball Club.

This new long-term benefit will help to lower the cost of broadband service for eligible households struggling to afford internet service and provides a discount of up to a $30 per month toward broadband service for eligible households and up to $75 per month for qualifying households on qualifying Tribal lands.

A household is eligible if one member of the household meets at least one of the criteria below:

• Has an income that is at or below 200% of the Federal Poverty Guidelines;
• Participates in certain assistance programs, such as SNAP, Medicaid, Federal Public Housing Assistance, SSI, WIC, or Lifeline;
• Participates inone of several Tribal specific programs, such as Bureau of Indian Affairs General Assistance, Tribal Head Start (only households meeting the relevant income qualifying standard) Tribal TANF, or Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations;
• Is approved to receive benefits under the free and reduced-price school lunch program or the school breakfast program, including through the USDA Community Eligibility Provision;
• Received a Federal Pell Grant during the current award year; or
• Meets the eligibility criteria for a participating broadband provider’s existing low-income program.

Eligible households can enroll at the sign-up event, through a participating broadband provider, or by going to ACPBenefit.org to submit an online application or print a mail-in application and contacting their preferred participating broadband provider and selecting a plan.  Additional information about the Affordable Connectivity Program Benefit is available at www.fcc.gov/ACP, or by calling 877-384-2575 between 9 a.m. and 9 p.m. ET any day of the week.

If you are a gamer, be sure to join the GigaZone Gaming Discord page!  GigaZone Gaming Discord Page

It has everything from GigaZone Game Nights to gaming clips where you can post your own stream plus a self promotion channel where you can post your links to get more followers.

Plus you can keep up to date on the GigaZone Gaming Championship and TechXpo coming April 22 to the Sanford Center in Bemidji, a Paul Bunyan Communications event!  GigaZone Gaming Championship   GigaZone TechXpo

Game with us!  Join the GigaZone Gaming Discord page today

Paul Bunyan Communications has been awarded a Border-to-Border Broadband Grant from the state of Minnesota to expand its fiber optic services to portions of Ball Bluff, Bearville, Cornish, French, Pike, Sandy, Verdon and Wuori Townships in Aitkin, Itasca and St Louis Counties.

As a result, the cooperative is expected to begin expansion construction to these areas in 2024. This all-fiber optic project will pass a minimum of 1,035 locations.  The project is estimated to cost $7.63 million, with the State of Minnesota Border to Border grant contributing $3.05 million and Paul Bunyan Communications and local townships investing $4.58 million.

PBC 2022 Border-to-Border Grant Area for Aitken County  

PBC 2022 Border-to-Border Grant Area for Britt Area of Itasca County    

PBC 2022 Border-to-Border Grant Area for Side Lake area of St. Louis County

“This is huge for our region.  Access to quality broadband service is vital to so many different facets of life including health care, education, business, and recreation.  It is why I co-authored the bill to fund the Border-to-Border Grant Program in 2022 which resulted in a record $67.6 million investment. I applaud all those involved with supporting the effort to secure this grant so we can keep our rural communities thriving and vibrant.” said State 3A Representative Rob Ecklund.

“We are excited to continue our expansion efforts to provide access to broadband Internet speeds to those without it in our region.  Our cooperative has a long history of expanding our network to underserved areas but it has become increasingly challenging to go it alone without grant support.  These areas will now not only get Broadband access, they will go from slow satellite or dial up Internet to speeds of up to a 10 Gigabits per second and become part of one of the largest rural Gigabit networks in the country,” said Gary Johnson, Paul Bunyan Communications CEO/General Manager.

Paul Bunyan Communications expects to develop the expansion plans over the next year and will contact locations along the upcoming expansion routes in spring of 2024. The entire project will be completed by June 30, 2025.

“We are very excited about this project!  This is going to bring symmetrical fiber-optic broadband to very rural locations that desperately need it.  This will be a game changer for the residents in these areas.” added Steve Howard, Paul Bunyan Communications Information Technology and Development Manager.  “We are thankful to the leaders of French, Pike, Sandy, and Wuori Townships who are also providing financial support to this project,” said Howard.

“I salute the hard work of our elected officials who championed the Border-to-Border Broadband Grant Program and thank the Office of Broadband Development that oversees the program.  This is going to make a world of difference in so many ways to a lot of people right here in northern Minnesota!” said Johnson.

Cooperative’s services will become available once the network is operational including GigaZone^™, service options like unprecedented Broadband Internet speeds of up to 10 Gigabits per second and low cost unlimited local and long distance GigaZone^™ voice service.  There is no membership fee to join Paul Bunyan Communications, membership is included by subscribing to either local phone service or GigaZone^™ Internet service.

The Deer River Warriors have advanced to the semifinals of the Class A State Football Tournament and will play Springfield this Saturday, Nov 19 at 9 a.m. at US Bank Stadium!

The game will not be televised but can be seen online at https://nspn.tv/MSHSL for a fee or it can be heard on KMFY, 96.9 FM which is also on PBTV channel 968, PBTV Fusion channel 1068 or online at https://www.kozyradio.com/

The winner advances to the Class A State Finals on Friday, December 2 at 10 a.m. at US Bank Stadium in Minneapolis.

Good luck Warriors from all of us at Paul Bunyan Communications!

Paul Bunyan Communications CEO/General Manager Gary Johnson was recently awarded the 2022 Distinguished Alumni Award from Minnesota State University Moorhead!

Gary graduated with a degree in computer science from MSUM in 1988 and was hired by the cooperative as a computer programmer that same year.  Over the years he took on additional responsibilities and leadership roles to become Chief Operating Officer in 2000 and then was named CEO/General Manger in 2012.

Congratulations Gary!

Go paperless! Sign up by October 31 to receive your bill by e-mail and receive a one time $5 credit on your account!

Log in to your account through SmartHub then go to MY PROFILE and click MY INFORMATION. Then select UPDATE MY PAPERLESS SETTINGS and turn paperless ON.  It’s free and easy!

Paul Bunyan Communications has built one of the largest rural all-fiber optic networks in the United States that gives our members and region access to the fastest Internet speeds available.  This enables innovation, economic development, telehealth, online learning, and so much more.  A few times a year we will share the story of a member and how they utilize our broadband communications network.

Our first Member Technology Spotlight is on Bemidji Steel and their brand new state of the art facility in rural Hubbard County just south of Bemidji.  A facility that would not have been possible without our all-fiber optic network!

View on YouTube: Member Technology Spotlight Video: Bemidji Steel