MEDIA ADVISORY
Who:
- Dr. Olin Joynton, President, Alpena Community College
- Don Welch, President and CEO, Merit Network
- Elwood Downing, Vice President, Member Relations, Communications, Services and Product Development, Merit Network
- Jake Martin, Director of IT, Alpena Regional Medical Center
- Jeff Gray, Superintendent, Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
- Ron Siegel, General Manager, Allband Communications Cooperative
- Bob Stovall, Vice President, Network Engineering and Operations, Merit Network
- Dave Post, Village Manager, Village of Hillman
- Gabe Schneider, Representative for Senator Carl Levin
- Liz Fagel, WAN Administrator, Northeast Michigan Consortium (NEMC)/Michigan Works!
What:
Fiber-optic Infrastructure Dedication for the Alpena Community to commemorate the completion of significant segments of Merit’s REACH-3MC Broadband Stimulus Project. Alpena Community College will host key stakeholders who will reflect on this momentous occasion. Merit Network will announce a significant milestone for the project and answer questions on how the community can take advantage of this high-speed network.
In 2010, Merit Network, Inc. received two federal stimulus awards for REACH-3MC. The Rural, Education, Anchor, Community and Health care – Michigan Middle Mile Collaborative (REACH-3MC) will create 2,287 miles of fiber-optic infrastructure in rural and underserved areas throughout Michigan and provide backhaul to key interconnection points in Wisconsin and Minnesota.
Through REACH-3MC, Merit enables state and local government, colleges, schools, libraries, health care facilities and other community anchor institutions to connect to Merit’s private, high-performance network, enabling them to lower costs, consolidate services and provide more to Michigan’s citizens. Merit engages sub-recipients from the private sector to improve service to homes and businesses along the REACH-3MC route. Merit’s existing fiber infrastructure combined with the new REACH-3MC network infrastructure creates a robust footprint in the state, providing Michigan with a strategic asset to leverage in the future.
Where:
Alpena Community College
665 Johnson St.
Alpena, MI 49707
When:
Monday, October 28, 2013 at 3:00 PM
How:
The event is open to the public. Anyone may attend in person. Please arrive 15 minutes before the scheduled start time.
For more information: www.merit.edu
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