A small town like Mount Ayr might go under the radar in Northwest Indiana. However, its small population helps create a stronger sense of togetherness where everybody knows one another in the community. As a result, NITCO has worked with the town to reward its residents with fiber internet. Town residents, board members, and the NITCO team gathered together at the Mount Ayr Community Building for a ribbon cutting ceremony and a community dinner on Thursday, September 26.
Tim Myers, economic development director for Newton County, has been looking forward to this day for several weeks. This ceremony will help open the door for the people of Mount Ayr.
“This ribbon cutting event is not only a celebration for NITCO, but the entire town of Mount Ayr,” Myers said. “This partnership with high speed fiber internet throughout the whole community is going to have a huge impact on all of the residents.”
Tom Carroll, NITCO senior sales and marketing vice president, believes there will be a lot of benefits for local students who might have to do work in online classes.
“Thinking about the educational opportunities alone with e-learning, it’s a great addition for this community,” Carroll said. “This town had the internet way back in the 1990’s when dial up started. As DSL progressed, we started to increase the speeds. Fiber is the next generation and we felt it was necessary to upgrade this service here.”
Carroll accredits Howard Marshall, board member of the Mount Ayr town council, for leading into this development. Once this project was in place, Carroll knew that they needed to host a special gathering for the local residents and supporters of the town.
“Whenever you build something new, you need to celebrate that,” Carroll said. “This is something that’s going to be life changing for the people who live here. People live and die by the internet these days. When Howard Marshall approached us about making this happen, we got on it and felt it was necessary to throw a party. We have Italian beef sandwiches, roasted potatoes, green beans and more for everybody.”
Tom Long, president of NITCO, has a lot of love for the Mount Ayr community. When this development kicked off, he couldn’t wait to see the influence it would bring to the people here.
“Mount Ayr is a part of NITCO’s DNA,” Long said. “This is the next step for us in helping to serve the people here. It might be a tiny place, but it’s a big part of who we are and what we do. We’re happy to be able to bring fiber internet to this town. If you can’t get fiber internet where you are right now, come to Mount Ayr. We’ll hook you up.”
Long was also excited to see so many people at this celebration that he hasn’t talked to recently. With locations in Hebron and Rensselaer, NITCO provides services in a variety of communities. He cherishes being able to reconnect with this town.
Gary Gray, NITCO plant superintendent, considers this development to be an absolute win for the community and their economic development team. Not only did it supply this town with an incredible necessity, but it managed to do so in the blink of an eye.
“We started on this project at the beginning of summer,” Gray said. “Construction took less than 30 days, so it was a very quick process overall.”
The construction team is the key contributor to bringing this together. Jerry Durflinger, president of the town board in Mount Ayr, is grateful for how they managed to fill this longlasting hole in the community.
“We’re super happy that NITCO is bringing fiber internet to our town,” Durflinger said. “We’re not a very big town, but they found the time to put us on their schedule and worked diligently to make this happen.”
Terri Pasierb, town manager of Mount Ayr, has a level of excitement for what’s to come moving beyond this ribbon cutting ceremony.
“It’s awesome for us to see growth in Mount Ayr,” Pasierb said. “New phones, cables, and internet at a much greater price than we've been able to get is huge for this community. It's awesome that our town got picked for this opportunity. We’re hopeful this helps drive an exciting impact for us.”
While Mount Ayr might be a small town in population, the people who live in the town have a big heart. Projects like the addition of fiber internet have many residents optimistic about the future growth of their town.For more information on NITCO, you can visit its website.
