Bill Evans running for Van County Commissioner

Written by Mike Ford
Wednesday, April 28, 2010 12:00 AM

VAN WERT — Because Commissioner Harold Merkle will not seek re-election, several community members are vying for the seat. One of them is business owner and farmer Bill Evans.
Evans has been a small business owner for 34 years. He is a general contractor who hires anywhere from three to five employees during the busy summer months and keeps two full-time employees year round. He has also served as a trustee of York Township for 22 years and Van Wert Port Authority director.

Read More...

Efforts under way to speed up connection to high-speed Internet

By CHUCK SODER

4:30 am, April 26, 2010

Organizations and government agencies all across Northeast Ohio are trying to add more lanes to the information superhighway.

Several local groups are working on projects to make the region's Internet faster and get more people to use it, efforts driven in part by ever-increasing demands for bandwidth and an influx of federal stimulus money. Some projects focus on helping low-income people gain access to reasonably fast Internet service or teaching them how to use it. Others aim to give local residents and businesses that have good Internet connections even faster access.

Read More...

Strickland Highlights ARRA Broadband Award in Geauga, Ashtabula and Trumbull Counties - OHIO.GOV

Columbus, OH--Ohio Governor Ted Strickland today congratulated Zito Media Communications for its $6.1 million award through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to expand broadband access in Geauga, Ashtabula and Trumbull counties.

"We know that connecting every region of Ohio to high-speed Internet will help our regional economies grow, so we created Connect Ohio to support applications and projects like this," Strickland said. "We appreciate these federal resources because they will help link our communities to the global economy and move us closer to our goal of providing broadband access to all Ohioans."

Connect Ohio, a nonprofit public-private initiative established to work with telecommunication providers and communities to bring high-speed Internet service to Ohio residents and businesses, provided necessary data that Zito Media Communications used to develop its application.

Local Woman is Now Well Connected - WHIZ News

By: Katie Jeffries
Posted: Saturday, April 3, 2010 - 5:23pm


A local woman now has the world at her fingertips.

A few months ago, Heather Burton completed a survey for Connect Ohio on computer usage and needs by Ohio residents. Out of 7,000 people, Connect Ohio chose twelve to receive a new computer and Heather Burton was one of them.

"Well she was just delighted, in fact she was using one of the public computers in the library when she found out. So she is very excited and we hope she will continue to visit the library, but she has the ability now to use her own computer," says Blair Tom with the Muskingum County Library System.

Read more....

Stimulus money to fund broadband in region -The Star Beacon; Ashtabula, Ohio

By CARL E. FEATHER - cfeather@starbeacon.com
Star Beacon

— The U.S. Department of Commerce has awarded Zito Media Communications of Coudersport, Pa., a $6.1 million stimulus grant to create a six-county fiber-optic ring, which will include Ashtabula County.

The grant comes through an alphabet soup of federal agencies — the money is part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act — and is funneled through the National Telecommunica-tions and Information Administration’s (NTIA’s) Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP).

Broadband is the infrastructure, usually fiber-optic cable, over which

large amounts of data can be transmitted. BTOP provides grants to support the deployment of broadband infrastructure, enhance and expand public computer centers, and encourage sustainable adoption of broadband service.

Geauga getting connected

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

By Cassandra Shofar
CShofar@News-Herald.com

A broadband expansion may help more businesses and residents in Geauga County jump on the "information superhighway," said County Administrator David Lair.

A recent $6.1 million grant through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act — with an additional $1.5 million applicant-provided match — was awarded to Zito Media Communications. With the funding, Zito will create a 382-mile fiber ring with 10 gigabits of capacity through the counties of Geauga, Ashtabula and Trumbull in Northeast Ohio, and the counties of Erie, Crawford and Mercer in Northwest Pennsylvania, Gov. Ted Strickland said.

Read More...