Marquette Tech District Foundation awarded $200,000 grant

This story has been updated.

To continue the efforts to bring fiber and Wi-Fi infrastructure to downtown Cape Girardeau, the Delta Regional Authority has awarded a $200,000 grant to the not-for-profit Marquette Tech District Foundation.

The news was announced by Mike Marshall, alternate federal co-chairman for the Delta Regional Authority, and James Stapleton, executive director of the Marquette Tech District Foundation, last week during Marquette TechFest.

When plans for the Marquette Tech District initially were introduced in April, officials for the project promised to bring fiber optics to the region and access to free, public Wi-Fi throughout downtown.

Spencer Lucker of the Delta Regional Authority said the grant will be used to help develop the plan and bring the technology to public spaces. There is private money, he said, that is funding the infrastructure that will serve buildings and private spaces.

The Delta Regional Authority investments come from the States' Economic Development Assistance Program, the authority's main federal funding program. The program invests in public and transportation infrastructure, as well as workforce and business development.

Lucker said this investment in infrastructure would help bring digital connectivity to residents and businesses in downtown Cape Girardeau which, in turn, would attract residents to those connected businesses.

"Cape Girardeau is an important economic and entrepreneurial hub for Southeast Missouri, so we are proud to make this investment in boosting digital connectivity for students, residents and businesses with fiber optic cable in the downtown area," Marshall wrote in a statement. "In order to help our communities and entrepreneurs in the Bootheel and across the Delta region compete on the global stage, increasing connectivity is an important first step."

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