Mayor on Duty

Let me cover several current items. Some of this information comes from questions folks have sent to my website in recent days. First, Optimum is continuing COVID testing at the Highlands Community Building next to […]

At the October Town Board meeting, commissioners voted unanimously to accept Hotwire Communications’ contract as the closed system provider of the town’s broadband highway known as Highlands Smart Cities Network. The town officially sealed the […]

Finally, there is light at the end of the tunnel concerning Hotwire coming online as a system-wide broadband provider for Highlands. At Thursday night’s Town Board meeting, Town Manager Josh Ward asked IT Director Matt […]

The COVID19 pandemic catapulted the issue of broadband into the forefront of everyone’s minds over the last year — and with the help of NC State Senator Kevin Corbin, (R-Macon) broad-band in Macon County and […]

Information allegedly obtained during the Closed Session of the December Town Board meeting, which was later released and misrepresented to an “outside” interested party, was the subject of the January Town Board Closed Session meeting. […]

The big news out of last week’s November Town Board meeting was two things: the decision to go with Hotwire as the closed system provider on the town’s broadband highway known as Highlands Smart Cities […]

Tonight is the November meeting of the Highlands Town Board of Commissioners. It begins at 7 p.m. by way of Zoom. The Zoom information is on the town website (and pictured at the bottom of […]

At a special called meeting Tuesday night, Highlands Town Board began the process of going over three bids submitted by three companies for the completion and operation of its Smart Cities Project (broadband highway). The […]

Bids have been opened for the lease and operation of the Highlands fiber optic network, which is in the final stages of construction. The town received complete bids from NC Broadband Group, BalsamWest, and Hotwire. […]

During Thursday night’s Zoom Town Board meeting, Commissioner Amy Patterson announced that contract negotiations with Wide Open Networks have fallen apart. At the March’s retreat –though business isn’t typically done – business was conducted regarding […]

The Town of Highlands is one step closer to providing high-speed internet access to every resident. During the May meeting of the Macon County Board of Commissioners, Highlands Mayor Pat Taylor informed commissioners that the […]