Kiwanis Club Holds Their Tuesday Lunch; Topic: Broadband

Chipley – The  Chipley Kiwanis Club met for its weekly luncheon at Pattillo’s Restaurant at the Washington – Holmes County Technical Center. Lunch was provided by the staff of the Washington-Homes County Technical Center. The guest speaker was Rick Marcum from Opportunity Florida.

Opportunity Florida encompasses eight counties in the Central Panhandle of Florida – Franklin, Gulf, Liberty, Calhoun, Gadsden, Jackson, Holmes, and Washington.  It is an eight county regional economic alliance and focuses on strengthening the existing businesses within the region.  Opportunity Florida endeavors to provide connectivity, knowledge, resources, and leverage to enhance the opportunities for local businesses.

Marcum spoke mostly about a grant received by the Florida Rural Broadband Alliance.  The grant is part of the Recovery Act Investments Stimulus Package and is $24 million in federal dollars and a 30 percent local match of $6.5 million.  The local match was made by Mainstreet Broadband, an Internet company based in Atlanta with projects in Florida from Navarre to Lake Worth. 

The venture will deploy the “Middle Mile” of critical wireless, broadband infrastructure to link large Internet service providers with local, retail service providers, thus allowing anyone in the eight county region to have wireless broadband access.  The network will deploy microwave, fixed wireless architecture and technology and is designed to deliver high capacity and cost-effective “Middle Mile” infrastructure. 

The project will extend the Internet backbone in the region and provide a platform for education, health care, and public safety services, economic development, and a host of other benefits.  This project will open these counties to the rest of the broadband world.  The target time frame for the project is 2 and ½ years to build and 4 years to market.

The Florida Rural Broadband Alliance is comprised of two Rural Areas of Critical Economic Concern and was established by Florida’s Governor.  The south area includes rural areas in south, central Florida including the counties of DeSoto, Glades, Hardee, Hendry, Highlands, and Okeechobee, plus unincorporated areas of Collier County and Seminole lands. 

The north area, of which Washington County is a part, and the south area together represent nearly 20 percent of Florida’s land area with a population of nearly 440,000 people.  However, only 39 percent of the people in these counties have broadband access.  Marcum noted that this grant and project demonstrated how regional cooperation is essential to the economic growth and vitality of the rural counties in northwest Florida.

According to Marcum, the ultimate goal is to attract quality industry and businesses to the area so that our bright children will have good-paying jobs that will keep them “at home” and prevent a brain-drain from the region.

Marcum is a graduate of Texas Tech and has previously worked in the field of economic development in Walton and Santa Rosa counties before moving to New Mexico.  He joked that New Mexico lacked water which is necessary for economic development and therefore he moved back to Florida.

The Chipley Kiwanis Club meets Tuesdays at Patillo’s Restaurant at noon. 

For an invitation, contact any Kiwanian or call Mark Collins, Membership Chairman, at 850-258-9453.

For more information about the Chipley Kiwanis Club, visit the club’s website at www.chipleykiwanis.com.