WORCESTER COUNTY, Md. -- The county received a little over $3 million in state funding, a portion of which will go towards high-speed internet. The focus will be installing fiber for businesses in Snow Hill, Berlin, and Pocomoke City.
Weston Young, Chief Administrative Officer for Worcester County, said $800,000 from a Rural Maryland Economic Development Fund will be put towards main street connectivity. The goal is give small businesses the same access to fiber as any other major city.
Simple Fiber, the company that will eventually install the fiber, is matching the funding dollar for dollar, turning 800 grand into $1.6 million.
"We, staff, and the county commissioners, saw an opportunity to give our downtown businesses in Berlin, Snow Hill, Pocomoke, an opportunity to have high speed internet," said Young.
While the opportunity will be there, businesses won't be forced to participate.
"If they wish to connect, they can, it's not mandatory," said Young. "If they're happy with their current internet based on what their business does, that's fine."
Business owners in each town are excited about this possibility.
Diana Nolte, owner of Snow Hill Toys, said her store uses the internet to provide online shopping, for a social media presence, for the website, and for all cash register and accounting systems.
But, while Nolte is excited for how this can help her store, she's really looking forward to how this will impact Snow Hill for the future.
"The new businesses that would be able to come to this area if we had dependable, high speed capacity internet, which fiber would bring here, so I would really, heavily support that," said Nolte.
Mark Thompson, owner of Simply Sublime in Pocomoke, also would welcome faster internet, and some competition.
"Competition to lower prices on the internet would be fantastic," said Thompson. "I mean we do all the Wi-Fi between all the music and computers and all that, it would certainly help out a good bit."
In Berlin, even for a shop that specializes in an old-school way of playing music, high-tech can be a big help.
Ryan Zlatniski, co-owner of Sound Storm Records, said any opportunity for people to be connected can go a long way.
"If people are googling you or just trying to look for your website, if they don't have the ability to find you, especially when they're walking around on their phones, they'll go to the easiest thing they can find," said Zlatniski.
According to Worcester County officials, it could be a little over a year before fiber is installed. The next step will be speaking with each town to see which areas would benefit businesses the most.
High speed internet could be a part of the communities future, and neighbors are eager for an opportunity to connect.