Town of Princeton, Mass. – August 24, 2015 -- 1 PM
BOARD OF SELECTMEN Minutes - MBI Multi-board meeting
1:04 PM The meeting was called to order in the MBI office in Westboro. Present were several MBI representatives and BOS Chairman Edith Morgan, Jon Fudeman, Stan Moss and T.A. Nina Nazarian along with Broadband Committee Chairman John Kowaleski.
MBI is looking to work with towns seeking private/public partnerships and grantor/grantee project management, design and engineering. Jon F. asked about control, and procurement requirements, noting that a vendor’s investment would preclude their expectation for control. Stan says that IRU should address control issue, with Axia. Process of controlling scope of project may be easier without vendor equity. He reported that bond counsel gave preliminary approval for funding with a surety bond of $450,000 to be available to draw from by Sept. 23.
Group discussed make-ready and Verizon’s protocol and turn-around time for pole readiness. If the Town were to work directly on design with MBI, the project manager would be an employee of MBI. Discussion ensued on MBI’s role concerning engineering, construction and technicalities such as dealing with “overlashing” fiber. They discussed planning for power outages and the possibility of hanging “all dielectric self-supporting” (ADSS) fiber, at what MBI reported might have a higher cost.
Three ways to move forward were presented: a public/private partnership with a construction grant from MBI; fully funded by Princeton with a construction grant from MBI; or, have MBI assist with the project with design and construction grants from MBI. Stan requested a draft agreement be relayed to Princeton. Design team from MBI could meet in Princeton. More discussion was around pole assessments and costs.
Representatives from MBI left meeting at 3:10 PM and selectmen with John K. continued with strategy discussion on the three options. Dave from MBI had expressed concern about Princeton doing make-ready before a final design is complete. John K. noted that make-ready will be done to national standards, and is over-engineered by about 30 percent, then it will be sufficient for whichever format/plan the town follows. John K. also talked about the spreadsheet from George Hardy. It looks like the total cost using MBI for design and construction is almost $7 million. Other vendor-investment plans or strictly town-funded plans are looking to cost less.
4:10 PM Adjourn.
Marie Auger
Administrative Assistant
Planning Department
978-464-2100
| 
