Faleide's firm takes satellite images from federal government sources and repackages them with proprietary software. Farmers use the infrared photos of their fields to measure vegetation density and crop quality. The information helps them plot the pinpoint application of fertilizers and pesticides. For the last three years, his clients have been able to retrieve the images by logging onto the AgriImaGIS Web site. And on the other side of AgriImaGIS is a tiny call center for Innes Publishing, a Chicago-area company that publishes four trade magazines for the printing industry.
Innes employs five here.
As Ed Innes points out, five employees may not seem like much of a wave of economic development, but in a town of 559, those jobs are felt. After a slow start, the people of Maddock are finding their way into the center. The demand on the four machines is now so high that the center has had to implement time limits. Between the free Net access, the classes, the child care and the businesses, it would be reasonable to assume that the center had touched just about everyone in Maddock. Donna Rice, a city council member and former mayor, says there's still a significant portion of the town that has yet to set foot in the center.