May 3, 2006
Bates touts AFN’s role in building local economy
By Robert Plain
Ashland Daily Tidings
The Ashland Fiber Network is largely responsible for economic success the city has experienced over the past decade, said State Sen. Alan Bates, D-Ashland, at a town hall forum on jobs and the economy on Tuesday night.
“It was a big factor in the entire city taking off,” he said, after the meeting. To the more than 20 people who attended the forum at the A Street Marketplace, he said, “Ashland has blossomed ... largely because of AFN.”
Bates said 15 years ago Ashland was not the successful community it has grown into today. “Half the city was boarded up,” he said. “Ashland was a dusty little town.”
Then, he pointed out, “Ashland decided to build [the AFN] infrastructure.”
This resulted in both businesses and individuals who wanted to move here, in part, because of the services the city offers, he said. “Businesses moved in,” he said.
Cathy Shaw, Bates’ campaign manager and a former Ashland mayor who is credited with leading the political push to develop AFN, said the number of non-service-oriented businesses in Ashland has doubled since the creation of the AFN.
“Government created the infrastructure and attracted businesses without having to do anything else,” she said.
Bates added that offering services such as AFN is also part of the reason for Ashland’s real estate boom, saying people have moved here from all over the country for the quality of life Ashland offers and a part of that is the services the city offers its residents, such as AFN.
He cautioned Ashland’s city leaders to worry less about the continued costs because the city has already reaped the benefits of those costs.
“The benefits were up front,” he said, after the meeting. “The costs continue.”
But, he added, it hasn’t been all smooth sailing with regard to publicly-owned Internet and cable TV operation, and more operational adjustments may be needed.
“Is it expensive, yeah,” he said. “Has it been run perfectly, I don’t know. [The city] probably should privatize it at some point. The next question is should a public/private business be competing with a private business. In one way, it has served its primary purpose, which was to get a high speed Internet connection into Ashland.”
AFN may be the reason Ashlanders now have access to Charter Communication’s high-speed Internet connection, as well, Bates said.
“Without AFN, we wouldn’t have Charter,” he told the group at the A-Street Marketplace. “People don’t realize what we have with AFN.”
Prior to AFN’s existence, he said Charter was not available in Ashland and locals who wanted to use the Internet had to connect through a long-distance dial-up connection.
Tuesday’s forum was not the first time Bates, the deputy majority leader of the state Senate, has spoken on behalf of the Ashland Fiber Network. He can be seen on AFN public service announcements advocating for the service.
Staff writer Robert Plain can be reached at 482-3456 x 226 or bplain@dailytidings.com.