High River Town Council took a big step forward in making fibre optic internet a reality in the downtown.

Council gave approval to first reading allowing the Town to borrow up to $530,000 in a 10 year debenture at their last meeting.

Mayor Craig Snodgrass says "let's get this thing done."

He says the Farmers Business Network is moving to High River only because they'll have fibre optic Internet.

"If we didn't get this fiber in place, they weren't coming," said Snodgrass. "They are an IT based business and they absolutely have to have one gig service for the amount of data they have to share."

He adds it is a bonus being able to learn from what Olds did and what they learned installing fibre optics as a utility.

"They were the first ones out of the gate doing this as a municipality. We've learned a tonne from them, it is going to be new for us and we will make some mistakes, but we are going to do this."

The Town will advertise the information for two weeks so residents can submit their concerns about the project.

Second and third readings will be held at the council meeting, Monday, April 23.

 

If you see something we should know about e-mail us at news@highriveronline.com