On February 17, 2009, President Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 ("The Recovery Act", also known as the "Stimulus Package" and also known as the "ARRA") into law. The essential goal of the Recovery Act is to provide a direct financial boost to help lift our Nation from the greatest economic crisis in our lifetimes and lay the foundation for future growth. Accordingly, the Recovery Act identifies five overall purposes:

1. to preserve and create jobs and promote economic recovery;
2. to assist those most impacted by the recession;
3. to provide investments needed to increase economic efficiency by spurring technological advances in science and health;
4. to invest in transportation, environmental protection, and other infrastructure that will provide long-term economic benefits;
5. to stabilize state and local government budgets

The Recovery Act further instructs the President and the heads of federal departments and agencies to manage and expend Recovery Act funds to achieve these five purposes, commencing expenditures and activities as quickly as possible consistent with prudent management.

Consistent with the purposes described above, the Recovery Act provides the Rural Utilities Service (RUS) of the Department of Agriculture and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) of the Department of Commerce with $7.2 billion, or roughly $2 million dollar for each rural county in the US, to expand access to broadband services in the United States. In so doing, it recognizes the growing importance of access to broadband services to economic development and to the quality of life of all Americans. Specifically, the Recovery Act tasks RUS, NTIA, and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) with leading the federal government’s efforts to begin the process of significantly expanding the reach and quality of broadband services.

For the individual citizens of Carroll County - for our families, kids, moms, dads, grand parents and great grand parents - personal high speed access to the World Wide Web opens new doors, creates new opportunities and broadens our horizons. How did we ever get along without it? Everyone will have their own special places on the Internet and their own special interests, here are a handful of ideas, just to get you thinking.

1. Join 175 million of your closest friends ... on FaceBook.
2. Tell the world what you had for breakfast ... on Twitter.
3. Track Your Kids using Global Positioning Satellites.
4. Listen to Internet Radio from Guam.
5. Follow the Local Farm News on Home Grown in Carroll County.
6. Get a One Month Weather Forecast from AccuWeather.
7. Get an Aerial Photo of Your House on Google Earth.
8. Learn Swahili! on the Swahili Language and Culture Site.
9. Get a Star Chart for the Day You Were Born on Your Sky.
10. Find a Job on a Cruise Ship from www.cruiseshipjobs.com.
11. and just about anything else you can think of!

If you would like to see your wireless dreams come true and bring your department, agency or division into the 21st century with high speed wireless network access visit the Join/Help page for additional details.