Representatives of T-Mobile presented a check for $35,000 to members of the Stuart Town Council on December 16. T-Mobile has committed $25 million in funding for small-town community developments projects over the next five years.
The Town of Stuart worked with Aerolina Wireless Network Solutions, of Charleston, N.C., to prepare an application that was recently announced as one of the American small towns that will receive a Hometown Grant to jumpstart vital community projects.
In late September, Town Manager Bryce Simmons applied for the Hometown Grant with help received from Rebecca Adcock, vice mayor and executive director of the Patrick County Chamber of Commerce.
The money will be used to expand public Wi-Fi along the primary business corridors in the Town’s historic uptown & downtown districts. A wireless mesh system will allow citizens to move along N Main Steet, the Farmers’ Market, and Downtown without significant disruption to their Wi-Fi signal.
“All of us at T-Mobile are so proud to support small towns with Hometown Grants,” said Jon Freier, executive vice president of Consumer Group at T-Mobile.
To select Hometown Grant recipients, T-Mobile worked with Main Street America and Smart Growth America, two organizations that have decades of experience helping build stronger, more prosperous small towns and rural communities.
T-Mobile will announce new Hometown Grant recipients on a quarterly basis – every town in America that has a population of fewer than 50,000 people – and a vision for how to make their community even stronger than it is today is encouraged to apply.