Red Wing Chosen for Broadband Initiative
June 14, 2012
The City of Red Wing is one of 25 communities in the country to be named a test-bed city for a new U.S. Government Broadband Initiative. Below, please find a link to a website that has a Hiawatha Broadband Communications (HBC) press release with more information. Our understanding of this newly announced initiative is that the designation will provide funding to support a high tech incubator site. So instead of the Port Authority taking on the entire marketing effort for development, we will have the assistance of the White House to direct interested knowledge-based businesses to our community.
This afternoon City Council President Ralph Rauterkus, City Council Administrator Kay Kuhlmann and Information Services Director Laura Blair contacted Legislative Assistant Kate Geldaker of Senator Klobuchar's office for additional information and she provided the links below. Senator Klobuchar has been instrumental in working with the White House to move this initiative forward. In addition we will extend an invitation to Mr. Gary Evans, CEO/President of HBC to attend a future City Council meeting to update us on this exciting initiative and to extend our appreciation for choosing Red Wing.
City Council President Rauterkus stated, "This initiative puts Red Wing in the position of being able to provide the foundation for leading-edge high-tech development and will give us a significant boost to our economic development activities. Many thanks go out to all the forward-thinking citizens that started the journey to bring broadband to our community 7 years ago. We are excited to be continuing our partnership with HBC and we are ready for the next leg of the journey!"
Blandin on Broadband update
US Ignite Partnership has entered into agreements that will bring its efforts to 25 cities across the country, including Red Wing, Minnesota.
This Fact Sheet has more information about the partnerships, including HBC. HBC is mentioned on pages 3 & 11.
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