EMPORIA, KAN. – The Emporia Area Chamber and Visitors Bureau is pleased to announce that ValuNet, LLC has been named the 2015 Business of the Year.
Chamber President/CEO Jeanine McKenna, Immediate Past Chamber Chairman Rich Avery, Chamber Chairman Pete Euler, and Chamber Events Coordinator Jessica Crumb and met at ValuNet, LLC. this last Thursday morning surprise them with the announcement.
Valu-Net, LLC (ValuNet) owns and operates the only next-generation, all Fiber Optic broadband network in Emporia. This makes Emporia one of only two Gigabit Communities in Kansas and one of less than 10% in the United States that can boast having fiber to business and residential customers. Over this network, ValuNet provides HDTV, telephone service and virtually unlimited broadband Internet service.
Founded in 2011 by; Rick Tidwell, Steve Sauder, Stormy Supiran, and Bobbie Agler, the company is one of only a handful of privately funded and locally owned fiber networks in the country. Backed by over 50 local investors, the company has invested over 10 million dollars in the community. While our network and services are unequalled, our real strength is in our 32 local employees. President Rick Tidwell says, “Our employees’ exceptional attitude and constant efforts to take care of our customers is what has made us so successful so quickly”.
Each year the Chamber puts out the call for all Chamber members to fill out and submit the Business of the Year Nomination Form. Upon those businesses submitted to the Chamber office, the nominated businesses are sent a Request for Information Fact Sheet asking for information such as: a brief history of the nominee’s business and how it has evolved, a brief explanation of the nominee’s business philosophy and reasons for success and a listing of community, civic, professional, business, religious, social, athletic and any other organization in which they have been or are a current member of among a few other questions.
Once the above information has been obtained, the past three year’s recipients of the Business of the Year award review the Request for Information Fact Sheets and decide upon the winner. We would like to congratulate all of the businesses who were nominated for the 2015 Business of the Year award.
The formal announcement of the 2015 Business of the Year recipient, Valu-Net, LLC, will be at the Emporia Area Chamber’s 119th Annual Meeting on Friday, January 29, 2015. The same evening awards will be given to the Volunteer of the Year, Committee of the Year and for Lifetime Achievement.