Municipalities vying to become a test bed for Google’s ultra-high speed broadband network had until late March to provide information about their communities to the search giant. Though the deadline passed two months ago, however, at least one city is continuing its charm offensive: Peoria, Illinois.
It hasn’t gone entirely as planned.
Earlier this week, the city of 130,000 sent two delegates on a cross-country road trip to Google’s headquarters. Their plan involved stopping at various locations on their way to Mountain View, where they would learn what people know about Peoria and, presumably, hi-jinx would ensue. They also planned to meet Mayor Ronit Bryant of Mountain View — who holds “Meet with Ronit” sessions for one hour every Thursday morning at the Bean Scene Café — and to take a tour of the Googleplex.
Unfortunately, one member of the delegation had to turn back four hours west of Denver due to pressing family matters. That left 37-year-old Fred Dirske to decide: should he continue on alone, or turn back?
Dirske, who has three children and his own Web hosting and search engine optimization company, didn’t waffle for long. With the help of organizers back in Peoria, Dirske parked the car and hopped on a plane to San Francisco in time to meet Mayor Bryant this morning. There, engulfed in the aroma of freshly ground coffee beans, Dirske delivered a proclamation from Peoria mayor Jim Ardis that May 27, 2010 would go down in the record books as Mountain View Day. (He also handed her a T-shirt, mug, and other novelty items.)
After that? Well, there wasn’t much more after that. When I spoke with Dirske this afternoon, he was touring Shoreline Park at Mayor Bryant’s suggestion and hoping to eat lunch at Google’s famed cafeteria with a friend of a friend who works at the company.
He had, he said, little to no hope of meeting with anyone else at Google before his flight back to Peoria in the morning — and he suggested that was just fine.
“They don’t want to encourage 900 cities knocking on their door, which is why we’ve approached this respectfully. We’re not trying to be intrusive. We don’t want to annoy them.”
