Special Town Meeting to Discuss Broadband

Come to the Special Town Meeting!

[2010-03-12] All citizens of Shelburne should attend the special town meeting Monday, March 15, to learn about efforts to get universal Broadband access for everyone. The incumbent providers have no interest in providing the broadband access the citizens of our town need to participate as equal partners in the modern world.

 Our community of Shelburne is a particularly pertinent case for expanding access to broadband. We have a vibrant tourist economy, with some wonderful and internationally known attractions, e.g., the Bridge of Flowers, the Glacial Potholes, and the annual Bridge of Flowers Classic 10K foot race (which will be a New England Grand Prix event again this year). Our Memorial Hall Theater draws a growing regional audience to the Live From the Met HD Opera Simulcasts, as well as our own Pothole Pictures Film Series and excellent local theater and music performances. We have sophisticated restaurants, charming local eateries, and Mocha Maya’s Café, which produces popular music performances live (and makes them available on the Internet). The ability to reach customers of these businesses, and also the bed and breakfasts, outdoor sports service providers, farm markets and other tourist attractions will be greatly enhanced with the provision of more broadband access.

In addition, Shelburne is a magnet for entrepreneurs looking for an ideal place to live, raise a family, and build web-based businesses. When we have universal broadband, many more new, dynamic enterprises can join our community, thrive and build the local economy because they will be able to participate as equal partners in the national and global economies. When we give these businesses the network service they need, all sorts of new ventures will become possible, and even inevitable. Take the example of Eddie’s Wheels, a successful local company which builds unique custom prosthetic devices for dogs (http://www.eddieswheels.com/index.html). Eddie’s Wheels is an internationally known business which makes great use of Internet marketing. Other businesses can do the same; but they must have better network access in order to innovate, create, and grow.

Finally, without expanded broadband access our children cannot become the productive citizens of the modern world which our community and our nation desperately need. All children now have broadband at school but many of them have no access at home, which puts them at a great disadvantage. Being cut off from modern communications is tantamount to being condemned to second-class citizenship. Better networks give our kids better futures.