Select Board
Minutes of the meeting of 4/26/18
Meeting Opened at: 1:15pm
Select Board Members Present: Steve Weisz, Chairperson, Carol Edelman and Kenneth Basler
Also in attendance: Cliff Weiss, Broadband Committee Chair, Chief Backhaus, George Cain, Ray Tryon, Ellen Lahr, BJ Johnson, Adam Chait, Peter Chait, Terry Cowgill of the Berkshire Edge and Corey Willey of the Berkshire Record, Lt. Governor Polito, Mary Makuc, Don Coburn, Peter Larkin, Shawn Tryon, Pat Carnavale, Caitlin McGinnis
The Board met with Lt. Governor Polito for a roundtable discussion of the following topics:
The Board welcomed the Lt. Governor and her staff. The Lt. Governor provided a summary of the reason for her visit.
Cell Tower: This is no longer a luxury; it is essential and a lifeline for most. The Lt. Gov. acknowledged that during her travels here she has experienced the lack of service. AT&T has stated that they will commit to putting an antenna on the proposed 2nd tower through the FirstNet proposal but it is also essential to get Verizon to commit and not view us as less important than Boston. Any assistance that the Governor’s Office can provide in speeding this along would be appreciated. Verizon is currently the only approved provider for the CJIS emergency software we use.
Broadband/Fiber: Carol recused herself from this discussion due to her conflict of interest. We have been struggling with Broadband for more than 3 years now. The discussion was turned over to Cliff Weiss, our Broadband Committee Chairperson to provide a summary of our proposal which would have Monterey wired in one year. We are currently experiencing a process logjam with MBI and the local provider that we want to use. We have very limited options for providers. We are requesting the Governor’s help with obtaining the $1.2 million in grant monies approved for Monterey for the solution that is the best option for Monterey (they have currently lit up over 200 homes in Monterey with their own money); they would be able to provide service to 96% of the town. Monterey
would like MBI and the state to be more open to other ways to helping us receive the monies through a different approach. Peter Larkin was present to argue that as a public entity they are accountable to disperse the money one way and they aren’t open to out of the box solutions. The Lt. Governor was firm that whatever documents are being required from the private sector provider that has yet to be submitted need to be submitted in order to continue to move forward. Our Committee feels that there don’t seem to be any considerations made to keep the business local rather than sending the money out to large, out of state companies. The Lt. Governor agreed that the focus needs to be on the sustainability of the project and accountability. The lines on the poles into the houses are the asset and where the money was spent. Peter Larkin asked if the town would sign a performance bond for the private provider.
Small town issues: We can fix a bridge for $150,000 and the state would rather us spend $1million.
Chapter 90 and procurement obstacles: Lack of funding for Chapter 90. A bill was filed in February to request that monies will be released earlier in the year.
Reality of small towns is that waivers of procurement requirements need to be addressed as the requirements are geared toward Boston and not small towns like ours.
Approximately 96% of our town revenue comes in from 30% of taxed properties.
A motion was made and unanimously approved to adjourn the meeting at: 2:30pm
Submitted by:
Melissa Noe, Administrative Assistant
Approved by:
Monterey Select Board
Select Board Members
Minutes Book
Town Clerk
| 
