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By TOM GILLESPIE A PROJECT manager is to be appointed to oversee the spending of the £1 million in the development of the Castlebar Information Age Town project. The cash is being provided by Telecom Eireann as part of the prize fund which the town scooped after being shortlisted in a pilot scheme to become Ireland's first Information Age Town. According to Mr. Pat Jennings, president of Castlebar Chamber of Commerce the first installment of £20,000 from the fund will be paid out to the steering committee this week. This cash will be used to cover the running costs to date and the equipping of the town's temporary Information Age office at Ellison Street. It is also the intention of the committee to open a full-time office and negotiations are in train for the lease of a building in the town for this purpose. Mr. Jennings said the committee have had protracted negotiations with Telecom at the weekend during which the company said they would be opening a full-time Telecentre in Castlebar. They also confirmed that they has appointed a national project manager Mr. Jennings said: "The Castlebar Telecentre should be in place within the first three months of next year. Arrangements are being made to have voicemail facilities installed in every home in Castlebar. This will be one of the first tasks of the newly appointed project manager." He added: "Castlebar's act is very much together. The committee are still very active and a lot of work is going on behind the scenes. We are actively working on rolling out new projects every couple of weeks over the next six months. "We will be advertising for the post of Castlebar project manager within the next three weeks. The successful applicant will have the task, in conjunction with our committee, of overseeing the spending of the £1m." Computers, too are to be made available to every household in Castlebar at what is expected to be at a substantial discount. "They will not be free of charge", Mr. Jennings stressed. "We are awaiting a national announcement from Telecom in relation to a major deal they are doing with a computer manufacturer." Mr. Richard Wynne, chairman of the Castlebar Information Age Town sub-committee added: "People are very anxious to see what is happening over the computers. Telecom ands computer companies do not want to upset the Christmas buying market or indeed the local Chamber of Commerce and retailers. They do not want to upset the local economy." He said in January Ednet will do an audit of all schools in the Castlebar area with a view to assess their computer requirements. This is part of a national drive but they will be starting in Ennis and Castlebar. Mr. Wynne added: "We are anxious to get up and running immediately and we hope to further augment this Telecom initiative with some of our own finance." |
