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Princeton Broadband Committee - Advisory Board Presentation Meeting
Meeting Minutes November 6, 2014 7:00pm - Town Hall Annex, Princeton, MA
Committee Members Present:
Ned Utzig
Stan Moss
Rich Wagner
Petr Spacek
Phil O’Brien
John Kowaleski
Edith Morgan (Select Board) John Lebeaux (MLP Manager) Phil Leaman (Linx), Chris Lynch (Matrix), Jon Fudeman and Advisory Board members were also in attendance.
Discussion
- Introduction of AB and BBC members.
- John K. gave introduction including errata information on presentation.
- Stan Moss gave out two pages of notes from MBI meeting on 11/5.
- John K. gave a timeline overview followed by Matrix Design Group responsibility and a breakdown of the Make Ready costs.
- Q&A with AB regarding the bandwidth and the effects of sharing a 1GB/sec, as well as options for connecting Princeton to the internet (middle mile).
- Discussion on connection to homes, 250ft length limit, how underground service could be handled for various cases.
- Question on whether there are locations in town which will not be served, discussion of the 140 Princeton “Island” not being served.
- Discussion on the construction timeline and issues.
- Discussion of the risks and mitigation – Matrix will take out insurance, etc. Chris clarified that there is no true performance bond.
- Discussion on the process for doing Make-ready assessments and work.
- Clarification of the $1.4M vs. $1.2M – as a result of the police detail removal from the estimates due to legal concerns from Bond Counsel. Police detail solution is still being worked out.
- Stan summarized the MBI community outreach meeting. Confirmed that MBI stated towns that will ‘go it alone’ will get a portion of the last-mile meeting, exact amount has not been determined. Stan has a private meeting in Westborough with MBI next week.
- Stan stated that he felt there is a very high chance that the borrowing for make-ready could be a short term loan due to the MBI grant money. John L. gave a more conservative opinion that the town should not count on the MBI money to pay back the bond.
- John reviewed all of the supporting people who have helped advise the committee – Atty. Jack Ferriter, Jon F., Chris Lynch, Leverett, etc.
- Discussion/explanation of the legal process of signing the borrowing/bond, being the MLP as opposed to the BOS.
- John K. gave a summary of subscriber fees including signup costs.
- Questions from the AB on the ONTs – what they look like, where they go, how they are installed.
- Comparison of internet costs vs. plan. Proposed price structure is not the cheapest but cheaper than some.
- Discussion of cost to subscribers of our plan vs. Wired West,
- John summarized steps forward: Town meeting, ballot vote,signing MDG contract, and possible state/Federal funding.
- Stan summarized the estimates of competitors to MDG – less expensive but requires a larger investment of the town and more risk.
- Discussion of high availability usage – if there is sufficient demand MDG will offer a new bandwidth/business tier. However there is no specific high-availability design for business.
- Stan summarized the letter from Bond Counsel.
- Discussion of real estate values and salability w.r.t. this project, and impact for the town.
- AB held a vote to put their support behind Special Town Meeting Article 1 – passes 5 to 1.
- AB advised that the presentation during the Town Meeting needs to sell the merits of the project to the residents.
Action Items
- Chris Lynch to share Matrix website information with AB.
- Ask PMLD if we can run fiber in their conduit. (BBC)
Upcoming Agenda Items
- Town Info sessions on 11/12 and 11/13
Meeting adjourned 9:41PM
Respectfully submitted,
Ned Utzig
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