MBI Postpones Worthington Public Meeting on 12/16
To Schedule Additional Sessions in January to Accommodate Greater Public Input;
Setting Up Additional Meetings with WiredWest Cooperative
The Massachusetts Broadband Institute at MassTech has postponed the meeting with municipal officials scheduled for Wednesday, December 16th in Worthington, Mass. This decision was made after careful consideration of the public interest in attending these meetings to hear from MBI’s experts on its review of the WiredWest business plan and operating model.
At the municipal meeting in Greenfield last night, we seated registered attendees first and brought in non-registered attendees next, but quickly hit the room’s capacity. To avoid a similar situation, we have postponed the Worthington meeting and will reschedule additional meetings in January 2016.
Through these meetings, the MBI hopes to allow for additional public engagement around the review of the WiredWest proposals, viable operating and governance models, and to speak to more residents and municipal officials in the region.
The MBI will also meet directly with WiredWest to discuss the state’s concerns over their business plan and operating model, specifically:
- The lack of town ownership & control of network infrastructure;
- How to structure a regional network, managed by WiredWest but owned by the towns; and
- Critical concerns over assumptions made in the business plan, as proposed.
We sincerely apologize for the scheduling changes and the late cancellation, particularly during the busy holiday season.
We will reach out in the coming week regarding the new meeting schedule. For those interested in learning more prior to these sessions, we have posted our original letter to municipalities, the two memos which outline our consultant’s reviews of the WiredWest proposals, and our PowerPoint presentation from the 12/14 Greenfield meeting on our website:
Comments or questions on any of these document prior to the meetings can be submitted to broadband@masstech.org.
Again, we thank you for your patience and commitment to broadband expansion.
Kind Regards,
Chris
Christine Hatch
Outreach Manager
Massachusetts Broadband Institute
508 - 870 - 0312 ext 620
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