Rotarians impressed by fiber optics presentation

Talk about it

Members of the North Shore Rotary Club got a view Lake County’s possible wired future when County Commissioner Paul Bergman spoke at a recent club meeting.

The plan, he said, is to route fiber optics to every home and business within the county, Rotarian Gary Martini told the News-Chronicle, adding the group was impressed by the presentation.

“He spoke at our level and told us how attractive it could be to new employers,” Martini said. “It was refreshing to see one of our elected official think out of the box and talk about the future of our community.”

The growth of broadband availability and capacity has occurred over the past 15 years and a number of definitive studies document that communities with the best broadband service grow faster than those that do not, Martini said of the information given in the presentation. Those studies show that communities with fiber networks grow faster in population, have more job growth, higher appreciation of residential property values, higher rate of creation of new businesses and are the first recipients of new services that leverage the higher speeds that are available via fiber network.

“Lake County has been known for the business 3 ‘Ts:’ Timber, Taconite and Tourism. We have an opportunity now to include a fourth T, Technology,” Martini said.

The North Shore Rotary Club has approximately 30 members and meets at 7:15 a.m. each Tuesday at Black Woods Restaurant. It also sponsors an Interact service club for young people age 14 to 18. The Interact Club of Two Harbors members all attend Two Harbors High School.

Tags: two harbors, community, rotary, broadband