Group wants high-tech cities
The Grovetown Merchants Association is holding an information meeting in an attempt to bring modern technology to Grovetown and Harlem.
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The meeting for business, civic and government leaders, and residents, is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Liberty Park Community Center on Newmantown Road in Grovetown.
Greg Laudeman, from the Georgia Institute of Technology's Enterprise Innovation Institute, will be leading the meeting and said the goal is to develop a technology strategy. The institute is aiding governments to get the maximum benefits from the "right" technologies at a reasonable price.
Dale Stoddard, a Grovetown volunteer leading the effort, said they are joining Wilkes, Warren, Lincoln and McDuffie counties in an effort to get state grant funds to support technology in rural areas of Georgia.
In March 2006, Gov. Sonny Perdue and members of the One Georgia Authority board approved regulations for a new financing program that will bring high-speed broadband connectivity to rural Georgia. The Broadband Rural Initiative to Develop Georgia's Economy fund will provide grants for publicly-owned infrastructure based on the number of rural counties receiving new or enhanced high-speed broadband services.
Stoddard said that by joining with the other counties, there is no maximum to the grant funding they could receive.
"We want everybody to know what's going on," Stoddard said. "We are really going to start shooting for the grant money. Everybody except Grovetown and Harlem are ready and waiting for us."
Laudeman said the institute uses a technology road-mapping approach to figure out what leaders and residents want to accomplish, decipher how technology is being used, then identify ways to use technology to accomplish what the involved governments want.
The goal is to use technology to improve the local economies and is needed in future planning, Stoddard said.
The meeting is open to the public and refreshments will be served. Reservations are not required, but requested. To R.S.V.P., or for more information, call Vicki Parker at (706) 860-9699, or by sending an e-mail to GMAinfo@bellsouth.net.