Town of Princeton, Mass. – Sept. 21, 2015 -- 7:25 PM
Princeton Broadband MLP Minutes - followed by BOS regular meeting
7:25 PM The meeting was called to order in the Town Hall Annex. Present were PBMLP Chairman Stan Moss, Edith Morgan, Jon Fudeman, and T.A. Nina Nazarian. Also present was John Kowaleski from the Broadband Committee.
The group agreed to ”get Verizon going” and sign the pole attachment agreement. The town needs to provide a surety bond for $45,000 to Verizon of New England and supply an annual payment of $4,500 for operating expenses. The Verizon count of poles is 3,100 while the town’s count is 2,750, since some poles are redundant or otherwise not needed for the fiber optic lines. The MLP members voted all in favor to authorize Stan as chairman to sign the pole agreement with Verizon, subject to the receipt of make-ready funds on Sept. 28. They also voted all in favor to allow the T.A. and the town treasurer to engage in a contract on the Commission’s behalf to obtain a $450,000 surety bond for Verizon New England, Inc. in
connection with the Verizon Pole Agreement and to authorize the expenditure of $4,500, pending receipt of the $1.2 million “Make Ready” funds for the same purpose. To stagger the orders and workload, the pole applications will be parceled out and submitted in (appx.) 18 subsets. The group voted all in favor to authorize the treasurer to issue $2,500 for each batch of 200 poles.
Commissioners want to have a central administrator and they discussed hiring Debbie from Lynx to do accounting reports. Nina offered to check her availability. Jon F. reported on meeting with Eric at MBI with Broadband Committee member Steve Cullen. It was reported that the Ayacht upgrade will result in a two-year contract supplying two or three MB/sec. Stan pointed out that “broadband” is defined as at least 25 MB. The group discussed MBI and the “regional” option that MBI offers, but design is a critical issue. Jon. F. said he wanted to continue the conversation with MBI but agreed that the town doesn’t have to move forward with them. The MBI model uses GPON technology (gigabyte passive optical network) but the
group agreed that “active Ethernet” was preferred. There was lengthy discussion around the cost for the MBI design, from $2.9 million to $4.4 million whether grants were included in the total. Savings may be available with a state or federal procurement list for fiber line and hardware. The commission might be able to peruse the town of Alford’s memo-of-understanding (MOU) with MBI.
The group decided to have a MLP meeting on Thursday at 4 PM in the annex. The question is about contracts and if an MLP is exempt from town meeting approval. The agenda on Thursday will include the town meeting requirement for long-term contracts; appointing Nina as project manager and setting a meeting with MBI. Commissioners noted that it is time to choose a direction of the three choices: Build regional with MBI; partner with a vendor such as Axia or the town does it alone.
8:30 PM Members vote all in favor to adjourn the PBMLP meeting. They reconvened as BOS.
Respectfully submitted, Admin. Assistant Marie Auger
Marie Auger
Administrative Assistant
Planning Department
978-464-2100
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