Shutesbury - Leverett - Wendell Broadband Joint Committee Meeting Minutes

November 14, 2006
Meeting opened at: 7 p.m. at Wendell Town Hall
Members Present: Robbie Heller from Wendell. Weezie (Marie Louise) Houle, Aaron Goldman, Glenn Cherrits and Howell Lee from Shutesbury and Rob Brooksand Dan Mishkind from Leverett.

Subjects discussed:

  1. Approve Agenda  with the additions of numbers: 3, 4, & 10
  2. Approve Minutes – not done – no quorum for official September, October & November minutes
  3. Welcome new members: Howell Lee and Glenn Cherrits from Shutesbury
  4. Chair transition:
    1. New Chair – Rob Brooks has volunteered as the acting chair.
    2. Database – Email – Weezie has volunteered to maintain the database and send out email.
    3. DTE – Dept. Energy com & Energy
    4. PVC – Pioneer Valley Connect – We need to send a rep from our committee. They usually meet in the morning in Noho. Glenn volunteers to be the rep.
    5. Expert contacts -
  1. Possible visit from Verizon VP – Weezie reported that Bill Solomon is trying to get Peter Bowoman, VP of Public Affairs to meet with our committee on an alternate date as Bill cannot come to a Tuesday meeting. Weezie will contact committee members as to a date when she gets one from Bill.
  2. Contacting politicians?  Do whatever to anyone to let them know we need broadband. Glenn feels that we could push forward on a full court press with the new governor. He will check into accessing the .
  3. December's Leveret and Shutesbury newsletters shall contain info for residents to contact the incoming governor's office.
  4. EVDO is operating – everywhere in valley
  5. Pioneer Valley Connect Broadband Forum & Open house:
    1. Locations & Topics- The first forum was held in Greenfield and the topic was Why Broadband? What you can do as a community. Rosenberg and Kulik were there and wrote endorsement letters.
    2. Shutesbury would love to be the host and/or help make the tests successful using our research. No point in testing something that will fail. PVC flushed the study.
  1. Acknowledgement of Aron for his tireless, amazing, inspiring work. Persevere, have a good heart. Getting the word out. Next wave of sustainable economic development in the valley. Aron in hundreds hours on a volunteer basis. Aron's contacts & wisdom:
    1. David Hunt, Wireless engineer in Oregon – Cinda Jones – will let us have access to woods and IT mapping guys. Put off by PVC – wireless guys Chip & Doug – wireless guys. We need a meeting with Chip, Doug, Tom W. and David Hunt & SLWBC.
    2. Rugg Lumber is in support of IT in rural towns.
    3. Tom Williams needs to connect with Matt Crocker
    4. Patch up relationship with Kulick and Rosenberg. – Rob will send a letter.
    5. Aron got permission from Gazette to reprint articles
  1. Other business, new initiatives
  2. Walk-in visitors: Steven Scoenberg, New Salem; and Mary Ellen Kennedy, New Salem
  3.  Next meeting: Tues, Dec. 12th, Leverett Town Hall
  4. Minutes taken and submitted by Weezie Houle.