ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Thursday, September 26, 1996           TAG: 9609260033
SECTION: BUSINESS                 PAGE: B-8  EDITION: METRO 
DATELINE: MCHENRY, MD.
SOURCE: Associated Press

COUNTY REAPS INTERNET PLAN FROM ITS AGRICULTURAL PAST

THIS OLD FARM COMMUNITY'S Internet access isn't about being savvy as much as it is about saving money and jump-starting the struggling economy.

The residents of rural Garrett County are vaulting into the Information Age with an idea borrowed from their agricultural past.

An information cooperative, modeled after farm cooperatives, aims to make computer services so affordable that virtually anyone in the state's westernmost county can get on line.

A $10 membership fee and a $9.95 monthly charge buys individual co-op members unlimited access to the Internet, e-mail, a community bulletin board and other features through a computing hub at Garrett Community College. Businesses are charged $24.95 a month.

And co-op members can connect to the system with a local phone call, also keeping costs down.

``This eliminates the distinction between the information haves and have-nots,'' said Lester Fuller, chief executive of Community Information Services, a Rolling Meadows, Ill., consulting firm that designed the system.

The system, now available countywide after a year of testing, is among the first designed to meet the computing needs of a rural community.

The nonprofit structure mirrors an agricultural cooperative, in which farmers combine their resources for their mutual benefit.

``What we've really done is eliminated the costliness of different entities going out and purchasing their own expensive systems,'' said Steve Herman, Garrett Community College president.

A commercial on-line service can cost about $20 a month, plus long-distance telephone tolls.

Hobby House Press Inc. of Granstville, a publisher of information on collectible dolls and teddy bears, saves at least $150 a month by using the system to e-mail a 40-page weekly report to Japan, president Mary Rudell said.

``The capability of sending that kind of data is really phenomenal,'' she said. ``We've eliminated Federal Express; we've eliminated copying and all the related in-house things that have to be done.''

The heart of the network is $750,000 worth of hardware and support services financed by GE Capital Corp., a General Electric Co. subsidiary. The college received a state grant of $90,000 from the Governor's Task Force on Telecommunications to seed the project and expects $100,000 more from that source during the 1998 state budget cycle.

GE and Hewlett-Packard donated some equipment and agreed to a 12-year service contract, Fuller said. The system can handle 5,000 computer accounts simultaneously without modifications, and up to 50,000 with minor adjustments, he said.

The fees paid by co-op members pay for maintenance and improvements.

Proponents hope the system's low cost and high power will make Garrett's location in mountainous western Maryland a non-issue in bringing more business opportunities to one of the state's most economically distressed counties.

``It's going to help us a lot in marketing the county. We're going to see a lot of people who want to come to Garrett County to do business because of this,'' said Jim Hinebaugh, county economic development director.

The system already is creating new business opportunities for individual computer users such as Derek Versteegen, manager of the Wisp ski resort near McHenry. He's developing a sideline in designing World Wide Web sites for other businesses.

Versteegen also enjoys the network's community aspect, especially an electronic bulletin board on which people post notices of coming events.

``It has sparked a lot of interest and a lot of change in the area,'' he said. ``It's bringing some of the city-type technology into rural America without waiting for the city to grow and expand into the country.''

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ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO:  AP. Garrett County, Md., which has one of that state's 
          weaker economies, is offering farmers a cheap access route to the 
          Internet. David Sumler (from left), Jon Larson and Ellen Willis 
          listen at Garrett County Community College on Tuesday as Penn State 
          University's Doug Carter (right monitor) explains computer 
          operations. color.