Otis Technology Committee
Minutes for Meeting of
October 19, 2009
Meeting called to order at 6:00 pm.
Present: Robert Rocke, Lisa D’Orazio, George Mabee, Mary Anne Cicchillo, Howard Levin
Minutes from September meeting were reviewed. Mary Anne noted that the conversation regarding Larry’s concern about the internet monitoring was omitted. Minutes will be revised.
The committee decided to not name a chairman at this point in time. No one is willing to do the job, so the committee will be run by consortium.
Regarding the next eCommerce Award requirements: everything is being updated on a regular basis. Lisa needs to check that the newest members for Technology, Historical, and Otis Cultural Council are properly updated on the website. Chris Morris will be the primary contact for eCommerce and Lisa will be the Alternate.
SBTC has a new chairperson, Monica Webb from Monterey. SBTC is working on the “last mile” and writing letters of support for groups that SBTC will sponsor with, such as Berkshire County Planning Commission, Dalton Group, and the Hampden and Hampshire County Association of Managers. Our POP location is currently in either Springfield or in Albany, and there is a possibility that with fiber, the POP could also be located in Lee, maybe Blandford. Libraries, government centers, and schools are the primary focus for fiber hookups. Fiber hookup to the home may not be – that would only leave wireless as an option. MBI has estimated they need $150 Million for the middle mile hookup with buried FIOS. The middle mile is estimated to be in by late 2010, early 2011. Round 1
has about $2 Billion and the amounts should be announced by mid-November. There are about 2,200 applicants for this federal grant money. The state of MA applied for $110 Million of this. Round 2 grant money will be given three months later. WE have no known requirements for this as yet. Four rounds of grant money in total are scheduled to be awarded by next year.
There is a discussion within SBTC as to whether communities should become their own internet provider, like Mount Washington, or set up their own DSL IP provider, like Russell and Huntington have done. Mary Anne suggested that a visit to Russell and Huntington might be worth a field trip. This means the town would probably become responsible for maintaining their phone and internet.
Discussion then turned to doing a “grass roots” pole location campaign, since Verizon will not give up their pole locations in town. The committee decided to run an ad in the Otis Gazette to advertise for volunteers to get the GIS locations for the poles in their immediate neighborhoods. They’d be a “POLE”-igamist and count and locate Verizon’s poles in Otis. Mary Anne and Lisa will get together on Friday to come up with an ad for the Gazette.
Meeting adjourned at 7:33 pm.
Respectfully submitted,
Lisa D’Orazio, recording secretary
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