Frontier CEO touts Jasper's place-making plans in $3 million contest

Jasper Mayor Terry Seitz presented Frontier Communications CEO Dan McCarthy with a plaque of appreciation during a special celebratory dinner Wednesday.

Jasper’s Downtown + Riverfront Master Plan impressed Frontier Communication’s CEO Dan McCarthy.

In fact, the plan for the future development of the vital area of the city was one of the key reasons McCarthy chose to visit Jasper. The plan put Jasper ahead of 352 other communities around the country that were aspiring to be in the America’s Best Community contest sponsored by Frontier, Dish Network, The Weather Channel and Cobank.

Jasper joined 49 other cities and partnered communities in the semi quarterfinals of the contest that could be worth up to $3 million for the city. Those cities and communities each received $50,000 and a GoPro to document the efforts of the continued process of planning their impact project and make it to the next round in November.

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Each community also received a congratulatory celebration paid for by Frontier Communications, but McCarthy only plans on visiting a few of those communities. “I have wanted to visit Jasper for some time,” McCarthy said. “But also, Jasper’s proposal was one of the most innovative and creative proposals that I saw.”

McCarthy has visited two other communities and plans on visiting a few more, but he acknowledged the efforts by the team of volunteers working together was impressive. “It’s a team effort that brings all different parts of the community together,” McCarthy said. “And I think Jasper has a great chance. When I read the application and saw that key objective was to bring a qualified workforce into the community, it really talked to me because I see that same issue around the rest of the country. And this was a unique way of trying to solve it; by dealing with the quality of life as well as solving some housing issues.”

McCarthy won’t take part in the selection process. A panel of city planners and community development specialists will review each city and community proposal as well as their efforts to incorporate community input into their planning sessions.

The GoPro camera is supposed to be used to document those planning and community dialog events. Jasper’s group of volunteers is planning community input sessions now.

But along with those sessions, the team is seeking people to follow along on social media as the city is highlighted through video interviews and photographs. A Facebook Page has been established here and already boasts a healthy following of over 1,100 fans.

Future events are also being planned around Strassenfest and the Holy Trinity Cardboard Boat Regatta.

The contest is designed to assist rural communities to create effective projects that create community and economic development. The top three communities will be announced in 2017 and will receive $3 million, $2 million and $1 million to be used to complete their project.

Frontier Communications is mainly based in rural communities in the 28 states it services — although McCarthy stated the company is planning on doubling in size and acquiring Verizon’s telephone service in California, Texas and Florida in the next year — and is invested in assisting those communities in growing.

“If this is something we can solve here in Jasper, it’s very transferable to other areas of the country,” McCarthy said about the push to help these communities develop plans through the contest.

The group of volunteers handling Jasper’s efforts is also responsible for raising $15,000 in matching funds to accompany the $50,000 received. According to Mayor Terry Seitz, those efforts are well underway and in addition to the contributions of individuals, businesses and community organizations, the Dubois County Community Foundation has pledged a matching grant.

Frontier Communications has many initiatives for the employment of military veterans for its workforce. McCarthy stated with over 30 percent of the local Frontier Communication employees being veterans, the region Dubois County is in has the highest amount of veterans employed among all the Frontier regions. McCarthy himself is a military veteran.

Redevelop Old Jasper Action Coalition (ROJAC) is the lead nonprofit organization and donations are being filtered through them. Anyone wanting to assist in the continued efforts can write a check to ROJAC and mail it to the Jasper Chamber of Commerce, 302 W. Sixth St., P.O. Box 307, Jasper, IN 47546, with America’s Best Communities or ABC noted on the check.

Stickers are being designed to continue to promote community participation, and a notice about the contest will be in July’s Jasper utility bill.