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Princeton Broadband Committee
Meeting Minutes September 10, 2014 7:00pm - Town Hall Office, Princeton, MA
Chris Lynch (Millennium Design), Edith Morgan (Selectman) and Phyllis Booth (Landmark) also attended.
Committee Members Present:
Stan Moss
Rich Wagner
Ned Utzig
Phil O’Brien
Petr Spacek
Bill Dino
Dag Olsen
Discussion
- Approve 8/27 Minutes – Unanimously Approved.
- Update from Stan on Legal Counsel meetings Attorney Ferriter.
- Wired West membership. Stan – Attended WW meeting on 9/3. 49 people in attendance, all members except Chris L. and Stan. Princeton came up at top of agenda, all 32 towns unanimously approved Princeton membership. Stan signed the WW agreement thereafter, Princeton now officially a Wired West member.
- Wired West lobbying update: MBI still somewhat in limbo, efforts focused on State level / House telecom committee etc. MBI made a request to committee to earmark some of the $45M for other purposes, which was not agreed to. MBI also requested full control over last mile funds, response is TBD.
- Selectmen went to TPS for STEAM program event. Sec. Mallone, Rep. Ferguson, Gov. Deval Patrick attended. Neil Sulmasy spent time with Sec. Mallone to thank administration for last-mile funds. Was informed that it was the Governor’s plan to release $5M of IT bond bill and they were looking for a worthy project to invest in. John L. followed up later with a letter to Sec. Mallone.
- Stan and John K. started a rough spreadsheet with cost figures for “Network implementation and MLP Startup” costs to be covered by funding.
- On 9/5 Stan met with some State Lobbyists and discussed strategy items.
- Update on Legal Contract status with Millennium – Stan - On 9/8 John L. got a letter from MLP attorney Jack Ferriter with update from Mass Attorney General re: whether the MLP is subject to Mass law 30B regarding procurement. Answer no: trigger for public works bidding is use of public funds. Since project uses private funds paid by subscribers later, we are not required to bid the project.
- John L. gave Attorney directions to examine MOU in preparation for signing.
- Stan motioned that BBC recommends the MLP designate and authorize a selectman and MLP director / Town administrator to begin discussions with Millennium. Unanimously Approved.
- Recommendation regarding make-ready estimation by Linx Consulting to MLP at previous meeting resulted in a proposal to the BOS from Phil Leeman and Dave Moore, unanimously approved by BOS.
- FCC Update – Ned updated group on the FCC application process, starting with the Form 5610 hunt. The required form is not yet available, under public review for 30 days expiring on Sept 18th.
- Broadband Communities Summit coming up in Springfield on 9/16-9/18. John L. sent a memo regarding entry being free for community access. Phil ordered a ticket.
- Stan – Leverett article from Sentinel and discussion on Leverett pricing.
- Rich working on an update for the website. Phil will provide something tomorrow. Chris L. also recommended article from Peter D’errico (Leverett MLP)
- Dag : question on symmetric up/down bandwidth and how GPON works. 2.5GB down/ 1.25 up not symmetric. Number will be capped for up/down.
- Chris: re: Wired West, regarding their bundled offering across towns, will take time and won’t happen for a few years. MBI model requires 40% take rate.
- Chris: MBI and State rep meeting happened today, waiting to hear what happened. No news on new MBI director.
Action Items
- Work on FCC application (Ned/Phil)
- Follow up on Milennium Discussions (Stan)
- Update web site with latest status info (Rich)
- Legislative updates. (Stan/Phil)
Upcoming Agenda Items
- Update on Millennium Discussions (Stan)
- Update on Funding activity (MBI/State/Wired West)
- Update on FCC application process (Ned).
Meeting adjourned 7:56 PM
Respectfully submitted,
Ned Utzig
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