City and business leaders gathered at Richmond City Hall Tuesday for a ribboncutting and groundbreaking ceremony celebrating United Fiber’s $9 million local expansion, set to increase local fiber optic internet availability by 80 miles. Richmond City Administrator Tonya Willim said United Fiber already serves a large portion of rural northwest Missouri with 3,750 miles of fiber line. New construction will be conducted by Sellenriek Construction Inc. The hub site will be located on a city-owned lot near Summit Street and will be leased long-term to United Fiber with a $2,400 annual lease payment. Although many of the fiber lines will be underground, 240 feet of line will be aerial due to a creek and underground rock, said Ken Smith, United Fiber’s director of Field Engineering. The centralized location for the hub would be on the east side of the Richmond City Hall parking lot. As part of the lease agreement, reviewed by Richmond City Attorney Chris Williams, the company would…