It’s always fun to hear about Minnesota success. This is particularly fun for us here as it hits so close to home…

Itasca Community Television has earned the prestigious Pegasus Awards of Excellence for its website www.watchictv.org. This is the second such award for ICTV’s website in recent years. ICTV staff is especially pleased with this award coming on heels of the complete rebuilding of the site in 2011.

“This award is especially grand because it goes not only to the ICTV staff but also to the community members working with the Minnesota Intelligent Rural Communities (MIRC) funds. ICTV received an MIRC grant to improve this website, hosting, and video upload and storage technologies. The funding was matched by the ICTV Board of Directors. The resulting web site, focusing on local video, is proving to be a good tool in keeping Itasca area citizens informed about our region and our governments,” said Executive Director Beth George. “We take our hats off to Blandin Foundation for securing these funds, plus the Grand Rapids Economic Development Authority and local Broadband Committee to allow us to put them to good work.”

The website was judged by three independent national judges on content, design, navigation and overall impression. The comment that stood out above the rest from the judges said: “The web site gives an immediate impression that there’s a team of folks that care passionately about ICTV.”

“It is great to get an external recognition of our work,” George added. “We will be using the judges’ comments and community input to constantly improve on the web site.”

Pegasus Awards were designed to applaud producers of corporate communications, commercials, special event and public access producers.

ICTV, founded in 1983, has been serving the Itasca area for nearly 30 years. Go to www.watchictv.org for online access to government meetings and community information.