Shutesbury - Leverett Broadband Joint Committee Meeting
Minutes - August 22, 2007
Shutesbury Town Hall - 7 pm

Members Present: Robert Heller and Robbie Leppzer from Wendell, Weezie Houle, Glenn Cherrits and Howell Lee from Shutesbury, and Rob Brooks from Leverett.

  1. Approve Agenda
  2. Approve June minutes – no quorum
  3. Updates from town reps:
    1. Shutesbury – Weezie Houle - none
    2. Leverett – Rob Brooks - none
    3. Wendell - Robbie Leppzer - none
  4. PVC News – Meeting either September 21 or 28, 2007 in the morning.
    1. Are they using 3 different technologies in hilly terrain.
    2. Are they going to have some hard test case scenarios.
  5. Hilltown CDC Western Mass Broadband Forum
    1. Howell went to the Hilltown meeting in Beckett. Stan McGee a funded position in dept of Economic Development, (Broadband Czar) attended and it was a good photo op.
  6. Things to do to prepare for the distribution of the $25 million in state
    Broadband incentive funds: Need, Feasibility and Readiness to Proceed.
    1. Need must be documented by demand surveys.
    2. Readiness to Proceed will include documented levels of municipal support. That means we need to have town infrastructure inventories done regarding existing right of ways for fiber and a review of town zoning in order to be ready for sitting towers, etc.
    3. After Exec Summary was emailed to us, Robbie Leppzer spoke to Adele Burns Project Director at Mass Technological Collaborative. She sent him pdf copies of the full paperwork.
    4. 1st question RL asked her was: Does it have to go thru Legislature? Yes – legislative hearings and votes will need to be taken. She was optimistic that it would be passed by Thanksgiving. It will be a bond bill.  Procedure: They will put out a Request For Proposal to make this real. We need to do the next step. State is going to pay for the backbone – whatever kind it is – fiber and wireless ring. The RFP will go out in spring for private companies to build the back bone and to take it from back bone to home. They would look favorably on companies to contribute their own money too.
    5. What Robbie is interested in and raised it with her: Create a non-profit to (need to research and explore possibilities) i.e. Interconnect in Boston & in Ashville, North Carolina.
    6. Another role should be is to prove that the wireless doesn't work.
    7. Among tenets that we want to stress, is that the under served communities are not ignored.
    8. We could also partner with Verizon or Crocker. Crocker would have to sub out to Verizon.
    9. Rob needs to contact Matt Crocker regarding partnering.
  7. Howell Lee has agreed to assume admin responsibility of Shutesbury listserv from Weezie.
  8. Visitors: Aaron Adison and Frank Citino from Shutesbury
  9. New Business:
  10. Next Meeting: Leverett - Wednesday, September 19, 7 p.m., Leverett Town Hall