Dateline: July 18, 2002

TIF board okays $250k for local network

By Roger Estlack, Clarendon Enterprise

A proposed Donley County Community Network (DCCN) received a green light and $250,000 in funding from the Texas Telecommunications Infrastructure Fund (TIF) last Monday.

The award, which was $54,000 more than was applied for, will pay for computer equipment, networking, Web site designs, and training to tie several local groups together and give them a bigger presence on the Internet.

Clarendon College is the principal agency under whose umbrella the grant application was submitted. CC’s Director of Information Systems and Computer Operations Will Thompson is serving as the project manager and wrote the grant application with the help of a local committee.

“You can’t point to just one benefit from this grant,” Thompson said. “It provides information about our county to citizens here and to anyone no matter where they are. It will also provide many of our citizens the opportunity to enrich their lives and obtain new job skills.”

In addition to Clarendon College, other partners in the grant are the City of Clarendon, Donley County, the Donley County Hospital District, the Clarendon Economic Development Corporation, the Clarendon Chamber of Commerce, the Burton Memorial Library, the Saints’ Roost Museum, and the Clarendon Family Medical Center. Clarendon ISD has also been involved in an advisory role.

“The cooperation between these different groups has been really good,” Thompson said.

Each entity will have computers available for members of the public to access the Internet. For tourists, Internet portals – or computer kiosks – will be located at selected sites so travelers can get news updates and check their e-mail as well as learn about Clarendon and Donley County.

The network group also plans to have information about local governments posted on the Internet as well as information about things to do or see in Donley County, local heritage, economic and relocation facts, and health care availability.

The college will benefit by receiving new computer equipment as well as by enlarging the capacity and speed of its Internet connection.

The DCCN will focus on tying together the grant partners first and then expand to help local businesses and agricultural producers launch e-commerce websites, Thompson said.

“This should help farmers and ranchers find new outlets for their products and help businesses expand their customer bases.”

The project will also increase the availability of broadband, high-speed Internet service to rural Donley County residents. The DCCN is partnering with AMA Online from Amarillo, a company which already provides high-speed wireless Internet to Clarendon and most residents within a 10-mile radius of the town. The network project will assist AMA with expanding that coverage. In return, AMA has offered to contribute financially to the project and to donate the expertise and services of its employees in providing Web designs and wireless networking.

The network should be able to expand the scope of the project with the extra money it received. The application was for $196,000 with each entity agreeing to put up a ten percent match for their portion of the grant. Because some community network applications were not approved, the TIF Board was able to increase the other awardees to the maximum of $250,000.

“I wasn’t expecting to get more money than we asked for,” Thompson said. “Fortunately, the increase in funding does not mean our local match will be going up.”

Thompson intends to have the network group up and running in the next several months and says the whole project should be completed by May.

“I realize it’s going to be a lot of work,” he said. “But I think it will be good for the community and good for Clarendon College.”

Other area communities receiving approval from the TIF Board were White Deer, Childress, Collingsworth County, Gray County, and Hall County. Each received $250,000.