Cook mentioned in governor’s address

RBC | Rio Blanco County Economic Development Coordinator Katelin Cook was named in the annual State of

the State address given by Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper last week in Denver as an example of a “local civic leader” for her work helping “Meeker and Rangely become some of the very first rural giga-bit communities in the entire country.”
Hickenlooper’s commendation for Cook came with the announcement that he is creating a statewide broadband office to help increase rural access from 70 to 85 percent before he leaves office, and to 100 percent by 2020.
He likened broadband to electrical power, stating, “In 1936, a Republican U.S. senator from our neighboring Nebraska championed the Rural Electrification Act to run the power lines that made countless family farms across the country more competitive.
Fiber optic cables are today’s power lines for farmers, ranchers and rural small businesses. These entrepreneurs helped pull us out of the Great Recession. Now, we need to pull together for them. We need to make sure they’re fairly connected to other counties and countries. If they can’t play on a level field, our economy suffers and we all lose.
Thousands of Coloradans’ careers have shifted beneath their feet, but there are still thousands of new jobs that need to be filled, many of which don’t require college degrees.”