HERMON – The town’s initiative to provide free dial-up Internet service to the community has been drawing creativity from all its residents for a decade, and now it is being used as a model by the state.

Gov. John Baldacci was on hand Wednesday morning commending Hermon’s school and town officials for the community’s leadership in the broadband world.

“Inexpensive Internet service is not extraordinary in Hermon; it’s the norm,” Jeff Wheeler, director of technology for the school system, said.

In addition to free Internet access the town provides to its residents, the school runs a cost-efficient program using older, cast-away computers and connecting them to a central high-speed server. Rather than upgrading software or computers every few years, Wheeler only needs to upgrade the server, saving him time and the town a lot of money.

“Cities like Hermon that build these kind of opportunities make sure the economic future of Maine is brighter tomorrow,” Baldacci said.

During his visit to Hermon High School, the governor announced the creation of Connect ME Authority. The authority, comprised of five members, will begin meeting at the end of this month to continue the Connect ME initiative, improving broadband and cell phone coverage across the state.

After a tour of the facility, Baldacci said he was so impressed with Hermon’s innovative technology he appointed Wheeler to the Connect ME group.

Hermon officials have helped spread their knowledge to surrounding communities, such as Glenburn. Greenville leaders were present Wednesday in hopes of absorbing some of Wheeler’s wisdom.

“The quality technology and the ability to make it ubiquitous is a tremendous goal,” John Simko, Greenville town manager, said. “We’re hoping to find out how we can make Hermon work in Greenville.”

The governor lauded Hermon for building a creative economy by involving everyone in the community.

“Our kindergartners here are very powerful people,” Wheeler responded with a smile.

The technology director said the next step for Hermon is to find a cost-effective way to provide faster Internet access to residents not serviced by the town servers or the wireless systems in place at the business parks.

In time, Wheeler hopes to provide 100 percent of the homes in town with high-speed wireless Internet service.

Baldacci said his goal was to learn from Hermon’s initiative and diffuse the wisdom throughout the state.

“Now that the secret is out, we have to run with it,” the governor said.