Shutesbury - Leverett Broadband Joint Committee Meeting
Minutes of May 16, 2007

Meeting opened at: 7 p.m. at Shutesbury Town Hall
Members Present: Robert Heller and Dave Scott from Wendell. Weezie Houle and Howell Lee from Shutesbury, and Rob Brooks and Fred Bashour from Leverett.

  1. Approve Agenda as proposed.
  2. Approve minutes as written.
  3. Updates from town reps:
    1. Shutesbury: Weezie Houle
      1. Reported to Town Meeting re: DSL
      2. List serve was created; Robbie Heller and Weezie implemented it today. Forgot to put URLs in meeting announcement. (Which ones: slbc.us & wendellma.us/broadband.cgi)
      3. Website was updated with emails of all committee members
    2. Leverett: Rob Brooks
      1. Leverett did not make finalist
      2. Leverett is forming a petition to Verizon for N. Leverett area
      3. He suggest that someone coordinate Shutesbury residents in the area of the lake with the Lake Wyola Association to form their own petition.
    3. Wendell: Robbie Heller ­ Not Much
  4. PVC
    1. Steering Committee News – Glenn Cherrits - absent
    2. Beta Test Site winners: New Salem, Florida, and Worthington
  5. In pursuit of a Western Mass Broadband Forum and how to invite other broadband committees to join with us to find solutions:
    1. Report from Robbie Leppzer who was to contact PCV to try to get list of applicants & any contact lists they have.
    2. Create an email letter to start some discussion.
    3. We were contacted by the Hilltown CDC re: joining a forum to be held on July 28. We emailed a reply that we would be happy to help them do this with our email list and other means.
  6. Forwarded from last meeting agenda: Governments not connected: (New Salem, Royalston, Shutesbury Select Board members, and Wendell Select Board members)
  7. Forwarded from last meeting agenda: Bringing new towns into the tri-town (SLW) Committee: Royalston, New Salem, Warwick – Roll into agenda item 5.
  8. New Business:
  9. Changing our meeting day to Wednesday, and to the 3rd Wednesday.
  10. Action Items:
    1. Weezie will call Verizon rep re: Shutesbury and Leverett: and ask about phone numbers:
    2. Rob & Fred: Draft a letter for the Selectboard to address the 5 College Lorna Peterson, Donna Baron, director of information technology for the Five Colleges
    3. Rob Brooks suggests that someone coordinate Shutesbury residents in the area of the lake with the Lake Wyola Association to form their own petition to Verizon.
  1. Visitors: Bill Irvine and Rolf Pechukas from Leverett.
  2. Next Meeting: Leverett - Wednesday, June 20, 7 p.m., Leverett Town Hall