Diane Valden in The Columbia Paper reports that the Town Board voted unanimously to form its own Broadband Committee to ensure that “affordable, reliable and truly high speed broadband reaches every household and business in town.” Several other Columbia County towns have formed similar committees and Governor Andrew Cuomo’s statewide broadband initiative is targeting the area. The town's new Copake Broadband Committee is in keeping with the town’s Comprehensive Plan, which says: “An excellent telecommunications infrastructure will be critical to establishing Copake as a competitive business location. In addition to high speed infrastructure for email and entertainment, the community needs to plan for other forms of e-commerce as well as advanced services such as distance learning and telemedicine.” The Copake Broadband Committee will collect all local data about the current service there. Read the full story in The Columbia Paper.