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In the eight years since Halstad Telephone crossed the Red River into North Dakota and the heart of Traill County, the rural telephone cooperative has captured 80 percent of the Hillsboro market.

“We’re very connected with the Hillsboro community,” conceded Ron Laqua, HTC general manager.

Halstad Telephone this week announced that it was welcoming its Hillsboro into its cooperative family.

HTC’s Hillsboro customers will officially become shareholders in the company next year. A Hillsboro director will be appointed in January  2009, as well. 

Hillsboro patrons can expect to receive their first capital credit checks in June 2010.

Meanwhile, company officials and Hillsboro users of HTC’s telephone network, cable TV options and its broadband Internet services welcome the marriage and the future the union promises.

Halstad Telephone’s investment in the Hillsboro community has proven beneficial for all parties, said Laqua.

“Hillsboro has been very good for the company.”

Since Halstad Telephone moved into Hillsboro, and today sits on the edge of town ready to move into the rural neighborhoods surrounding the city, company officials have wanted to bring its Hillsboro customers into the cooperative.

However, at first, Halstad Telephone officers weren’t sure how the company would be received by the Hillsboro community.

Any doubts were soon dismissed as the company quickly grabbed a good share of Hillsboro’s telephone and TV customers.

“Hillsboro has been on our cooperative radar screen,” admitted Laqua.

“The time is right now to bring Hillsboro into the family.”

In the cooperative spirit, a customer base that helps increase revenues should share in the profits, Laqua pointed out.

“There is not a downside to this,” added Mark Forseth, HTC office manager.

Halstad Telephone has been good for Hillsboro and the Hillsboro community has been good for HTC, Forseth added.

Laqua and HTC stop short of promising rural Hillsboro expanded services tomorrow, but hopefully the day will come when Halstad Telephone’s services will reach into the countryside surrounding Hillsboro.

The company’s underground lines are poised at the city’s edge, waiting for the word.

Today, however, the word is cooperative. And tomorrow, Jan. 1, 2009, to be exact, Hillsboro’s HTC customers will become shareholders in the rural telephone cooperative.

And that’s good news, Laqua and Forseth agreed.