After a two-year research project, the town concluded that the best way to help the community was to provide free research and access to city resources and technology. For instance, Littleton gives local businesses use of the city's online services and computers. Gibbons' shop is set up with Gateway Inc. 166 MHz Pentium PCs, World Wide Web browsers and a T-1 line, letting the staff use the Internet with speed. The speed is essential because the department tries to answer local businesses' queries within half a day. The office also has an ISDN connection and cameras for videoconferencing over phone lines.
Local businesses use the office as a research and development resource.
One company, Fisher Associates Architects and Engineers, used city services after the firm's partnership recently broke up, and Fisher and his wife were starting their business from scratch. They would give us that online on a weekly basis, sending ads that were seeking applications for this kind of building in Colorado in our parameters. They would cater to us. Patience Counseled Despite the 400 inquiries the office receives annually from local businesses, getting businesses to use the service has sometimes been a challenge for the city. We found we had to be very patient, and I think there was some frustration among the staff.