Testimonial

To whom it may concern,

During my tenure with the Graham County Chamber of Commerce my focus was to enhance the existing business community as well as attract new employment opportunities and tax paying businesses. During this time I witnessed the transformation from a basic agricultural economy to an expanded one including the establishment of a major copper mining operation.

Of the tools I used during this period, nothing surpasses the advances in technology made available to me. Led by the efforts of the Graham County IT Director John Lucas, Graham County residents were afforded broadband services that exceeded any other rural county in Arizona. New concepts and ideas were brought into the county including redundancy that is so vitally important. Obviously this required quality planning and some “outside the box” thinking. 

Although I have moved on, the residents of Graham County still enjoy quality broadband services at reasonable prices due to the efforts of John. 

Sheldon Miller

Former Executive Director

Graham County Chamber of Commerce

I am pleased to provide my letter of recommendation for Community Broadband Advocates, LLC (CBA).

While serving as the Town of Springerville Manager, with the Town of Eagar we applied for and were awarded broadband planning funds from the Arizona Commerce Authority. The Eagar Manager and I 

advertised to hire a qualified company to develop the plan for our community.

Following the advertisement process, CBA was the clear choice.

While under contract, CBA balanced the requests from two distinct municipalities, including the elected boards and managers. CBA brought expertise, connections that were not available to the Towns, resources we did not have access to, and ideas that we had not considered. CBA assisted the Towns in creating a broadband consortium which assisted in bringing other entities to the 

conversation.  CBA went over and above my expectations for the contract.

At the conclusion of the contract, the Towns had a plan which we used to apply for a federal grant to construct the plan. The Town Councils authorized the hiring of CBA to assist with the grant application. In this role, CBA again went over and above my expectations.

As I am involved in constructing the last mile of broadband in my community, I will continue to strongly consider hiring CBA to assist in this process. In addition, I strongly recommend hiring CBA to fulfill contracts that are within their team’s expertise.

If you have further questions about my experience with CBA, please contact me.

Sincerely,

Joseph Jarvis

Former Springerville Town Manager