Business View Magazine | September 2019

223 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE SEPTEMBER 2019 Innovations to establish a business incubator, accelerator, and co-working space in our downtown. They will operate the space which will help entrepreneurs and start-up businesses in the logistics technology sector. We see that as a great way to help create new businesses and jobs in the city, in addition to new technologies that can be utilized by our thriving logistics sector.” Gates: “Also downtown, we’re partnering with our local Chaffey College, one of the top community college systems in the country, for the establishment of a downtown campus. It would take up a whole city block and, potentially, bring thousands of students and faculty there, every day.” BVM: Are there significant infrastructure projects in the works? Andrews: “With goods movement being so important to our economy, council always wants to ensure our roads are set up to accommodate a vast amount of trucks from a maintenance and construction perspective. Also, the folks in our public works department pay very close attention to the quality of streets in our neighborhoods to make sure they are safe and well maintained. Plus, they continually monitor all elements of our city infrastructure.” Gates: “We have a big fiber project going on, right now. We’ve installed 35 miles of conduit in the city and we’re in the process of installing another 35 miles. And this is just getting started. The goal is to have every residence and business connected to what we call Ontario Net (one Gb per second internet). We’ve partnered with Inyo Networks for this; we’re installing the conduit and they’re providing the internet service at very affordable rates for our residents and businesses.” BVM: What else would you like to share about the City of Ontario? Andrews: “Ontario is one of the older incorporated cities in southern California, so we have established neighborhoods in parts of the city, but we also have an area of about 13 square miles that was annexed about 20 years ago. It has been master planned as part of the city, and now we’re starting to see the fruits of that planning put into place, in terms of new residential neighborhoods going in, new people buying homes, and new businesses being established. That’s pretty exciting for the future of Ontario because we’re on the cusp of a remarkable period of growth for the whole community.” ONTAR IO, CAL I FORNI A