South Jacksonville Mayor Tyson Manker met with Congressman Darin LaHood (R-18) in Washington, DC, yesterday to discuss extremely poor cellular connectivity in the Village and neighboring areas to the south, like Lake Jacksonville.
Manker and LaHood also talked about infrastructure needs of the Village, IT Security, and other topics important to South Jacksonville. “The Congressman and I had a productive meeting where I was able to share with him some of the issues facing South Jacksonville residents, and also talk about some of our shared ideas for a strong future in Central Illinois.”
“Rep. LaHood graciously offered, among other things, to write a letter to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on our behalf about misleading cellular coverage maps, primarily that of telecom giant AT&T, and the serious impact of poor cellular connectivity on our Police, whose vehicles routinely cannot connect to AT&T’s network,” Manker said.
“I also shared with Congressman the many frustrations I have heard from people who cannot use their cell-phone to connect or make basic calls, and I described how this issue impacts our local economy.”
When discussing IT security, Manker informed the Congressman that under a previous administration the Village of South Jacksonville paid a ransom of taxpayer dollars to hackers in order to regain control of internal systems—a fact kept secret from the public.
Congressman LaHood’s office shared the meeting on social media, saying:
“I had a good meeting with @MayorManker of South Jacksonville today. We discussed rural broadband and IT security issues. I will continue to work with Mayor Manker to support @SJacksonvilleIL.”
