Resource Documents

Economic Development and Technology: A Guidebook Economic Development Association of North Dakota -- October 2000

Links

Lusk, Wyoming
Powell, Wyoming
Glenrock, Wyoming
Watford City, North Dakota
Mayville, North Dakota

Mayville State University -- a wired campus

Centers of Excellence
In Rural America

Many rural communities across America are in a battle for survival. Traditional industries such as agriculture and natural resources development are faced with lower prices and higher outputs using fewer workers. Young people are continuing a decades long trend of leaving their communities in search of better economic opportunities -- most often in larger cities.

At the same time, many urban areas are faced with sprawl, congestion, long commutes, and poor air quality as people continue to crowd into cities. Surveys of urban residents reveal that many would prefer to live in smaller towns and long for a sense of community, for safer streets, and better schools.

For the last two years, state and local leaders from Wyoming and North Dakota have been implementing a concept they are calling Centers of Excellence in Rural America (CERA). The CERA concept builds on the roots of small towns in the West -- their independence but mutual support for the common good. CERA is an effort to test the hypothesis that creating a network of small rural towns deploying affordable, high speed telecommunications services will result in increased job creation and/or income in those towns while also improving access to education, healthcare, and governmental services. CERA is a multi-state, multi-site project sponsored by the Western Governors' Association, with leadership from the governors of North Dakota and Wyoming and participation from the towns of Lusk, Powell, and Glenrock in Wyoming and Watford City and Mayville in North Dakota.

The technologies deployed will enable citizens in these towns to pool their collective talent that can be utilized in an extended workplace situation and market that pool of talent to corporations. In addition, with the high speed telecommunications capabilities in place, the participating towns will focus on improving access to health, education, and government services to take full advantage of the installed infrastructure and may share services and expertise among the towns over the network as well.

Beneficiaries of the CERA project will include citizens, businesses, and governments in these towns that have been traditionally underserved and or bypassed by the nation's telecommunications infrastructure. A half a century ago the nation invested in a national highway system that integrated small towns because they grew, and needed to ship to urban consumers, the nation's food supply. A look at the high speed fiber highways being constructed today shows these towns are being bypassed entirely. This sends the signal that these towns have nothing to contribute to the nation's economy and well being anymore. We believe the CERA network will help small towns in the country continue to survive and prosper in the next century.

Centers for Excellence is Rural America is looking for partners and corporate sponsors who are willing to help design, implement, and evaluate the emerging CERA model.