ELKRIDGE Declaring broadband Internet access essential for private sector growth and to link schools, hospitals and other institutions across Maryland, federal, state and local elected officials gathered at a Howard County warehouse Monday to formally celebrate a milestone in the years-long effort to extend high-speed service to rural communities.

The event marked the opening of a logistics center that will serve as the base of operations for the 10-jurisdiction alliance that is slated to receive nearly two-thirds of the $115 million in federal stimulus dollars for developing a fiber-optic network that will serve as the project’s backbone.

“Broadband was once sort of a nice thing to have,” said Howard County Executive Ken Ulman (D), whose jurisdiction took the lead in securing the federal grant. “No longer. Now, it’s a must-have for every residence and every business.”

Standing in front of several huge spools of orange cable that eventually will be laid into the ground, Gov. Martin O’Malley (D) and U.S. Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski trumpeted the stimulus program as a way of creating jobs and boosting the economy.

“If you want to reach out to the world, you need broadband,” said Mikulski (D) of Baltimore, an early advocate of the project.

Over the next two-plus years federal guidelines require the money to be spent by the summer of 2013 the broadband build-out will directly create or save 1,800 jobs, from network engineers to construction workers, officials said.

“This will lead to thousands and thousands of jobs we don’t yet know,” Mikulski said.

The event drew political leaders from both parties the Democratic executives of Baltimore and Prince George’s counties and the mayors of Baltimore and Annapolis, as well as the Republican heads of Anne Arundel and Harford counties.

Still, Mikulski landed some partisan jabs, saying Democrats and the Obama administration had to “stand up to the mob” to pass the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, better known as the federal stimulus, in 2008.

In addition to the federal money, Maryland has pledged to chip in $32 million to the effort.

Once it is completed, the fiber-optic network will link more than 1,000 schools, libraries, public safety agencies and other facilities, spanning 4,200 square miles across Maryland, and linking the Wallops Island (Va.) NASA facility on the Delmarva Peninsula to the far reaches of Garrett County in Western Maryland. The alliance includes 715 of the to-be-connected institutions.

Maryland missed out on the first round of grant awards under the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program, but the formation of a One Maryland Broadband coalition before the second round of funding helped unite disparate interests from various groups bidding for stimulus dollars the first time around.

Maryland’s project is the only one in the nation to be awarded federal aid that covers every jurisdiction in a state, said Lawrence E. Strickling, head of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, which is overseeing the disbursement of $4.7 billion in broadband grants.

“These projects prime the pump” for job creation, he said, noting a Baltimore small business owner who told him Monday that he was hiring a dozen people to do cable splicing on the broadband project. “It is a textbook example of government investment done right.”

U.S. Rep. John P. Sarbanes (D-Dist. 3) of Towson said the broadband project represents a wise investment in both human capital and public infrastructure.

Ulman also announced Monday that three companies Freedom Wireless Broadband, AboveNet Communications Inc. and tw telecom inc. have signed on to provide “last-mile service” from the main fiber line to outlying communities that will give them high-speed Internet access.

Patrick Mitchell, president and CEO of the Maryland Broadband Cooperative, predicted the broadband network will have significant spinoff impacts, creating jobs in wireless communications and enabling companies to expand to rural and emerging areas of the state.

The Elkridge logistics center will be run by IPX, a Rockville-based small- and minority-owned business that will warehouse, package and track the supply of fiber and materials for the project.

abrody@gazette.net