Frank Glover

Email: fglover@co.marion.or.us
Title: Rural Broadband Specialist
Organization: Marion County Economic Development
Community: Marion County
Population: 343,742
County Served: Marion County

Meet Frank Glover (he/him):

Frank hails from the Tar Heel State – North Carolina, and most recently was a City Planner along the Chesapeake Bay in Hampton, Virginia. In addition, Frank held the position of Assistant City Planner in 2016-2017 in Graham, North Carolina – a small city, and the Alamance County Seat in Central North Carolina. Frank attended graduate school at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill and received his Master’s in City and Regional Planning in 2012. Frank has experience doing several long-term plans such as the analyzation of effective Hazard Mitigation Plans for a FEMA project; effective use of smart growth tools a community can use for growth management; bicycle and pedestrian planning, and site design planning. Though Frank has worked as a City Planner, with four years of experience, he is motivated to move into the economic/community development sector of planning. His goals are to gain more experience with broadband, project management, and grant applications/management as well as community/stakeholder engagement. Frank’s professional aspirations are centered on the importance of public service and improving the lives of others. In his free time, Frank enjoys outdoors activities such as nature studies, camping, sailing, mountain-biking, hiking, whitewater activities, traveling, spirituality/mindfulness practices, learning and being with others making friends.

Community and Organization

Frank lives in Woodburn, a small city in northern Marion County. He commutes daily, working for Marion County at the County Office Building in Salem. Frank’s area of work for the County is primarily those large areas of the County where agriculture and agricultural related businesses are particularly prevalent, which is more than half the County. Additionally, Frank works in the naturally rugged and forested eastern section of the County, which experienced destructive wildfires several years ago – the North Santiam Canyon.  Marion County is located about in the middle of the Willamette Valley. The County, having a large agricultural sector as its economy, and being in the middle of the Valley, takes advantage of some of the best soils in the Western US.  Salem, the state capital and county seat, is the largest city in Marion County. In addition to Salem there are 20 incorporated cities and 37 unincorporated communities in the County. The 2020 census listed Marion County with a population of 343,742 people and the primary industries other than agriculture and agriculturally related businesses are State Government, food processing, some lumber related industries, manufacturing, healthcare, and – with a large community college and several universities – education. Tourism is also an important economy to the County with the Willamette Winery and Oregon’s oldest state park.  Silver Falls State Park is an important tourist draw to the State and is in the eastern part of the County. Marion County is not considered one of Oregon’s larger counties and is 1,194 square miles in size. Currently, the County is experiencing growth. Woodburn, a larger city in the northern part of the County is especially prone to this growth. Woodburn is developing a large Amazon processing facility and several new residential developments are being built.

Frank is specifically working with Marion County’s Economic Development Program. The Economic Development Program is a part of the Community Services Department. The Community Services also has oversight to the Children and Families Commission, the County Fair, Dog Services, the Marion County Reentry Initiative, and a partnership with Marion County Extension and the 4H Service District.

Project

Frank is taking the lead role in deploying broadband fiber to allow for economic development particularly to the agricultural sector of Marion County and finishing the projects started in the North Santiam Canyon area of the County. Two of his responsibilities as a RARE member are to manage the deliverables from the County’s broadband consultant and manage the proposed deployment of an upcoming middle-mile broadband infrastructure project to a rural area of the county. His third focus area is continuing to bring fiber-based broadband infrastructure to underserved agricultural communities, enabling the development of a precision agricultural ecosystem in the region. Finally, Frank is working to finish “building out” fiber-based broadband to wildfire impacted areas in the North Santiam Canyon. Important elements of Frank’s work are to identify areas of need among the agricultural areas of the County and collect narratives from these area farms in need. This project will be used for building a case to identify a project area, and apply for grant money for a cost sharing middle mile project to the designated area of need between the County and a local Internet Service Provider. Additionally, Frank is engaging with a wide range of stakeholders, including elected officials, residents, broadband consultants, farmers, fiber providers, and other regional partners to facilitate the development of broadband in Marion County.