Otis Technology Committee
Minutes for Meeting of
December 19, 2016
Otis Town Hall
Meeting called to order at 6:05 pm in the Town Hall Conference Room, is being recorded, and a quorum is present.
Present: Bill Hiller, George Mabee, Frank Tolopko, Larry Gould, and Lisa D’Orazio
Absent: Laurie Flower
Others Present: Dave Rice, Jack Piaquadio, Emily Piaquadio, Lyn O’Brien, and Bob Rosen
Approval of Meeting Minutes: The November 21, 2016 Technology meeting minutes were approved as written with Larry abstaining.
VTS Webinar on 11/30: Lyn, Lisa, Frank, and George observed the online demonstration. Lyn loved the platform and thought it would be a good upgrade. A one-time cost of $5000 to switch platforms includes migration and training. The annual fee for the website will still be around $3200 to $3500. Emails will be outsourced with a third party vendor at $50.00 per account per year if we switch from gmail. Lyn was asked to research how many accounts are currently used in town. Bill also wanted to know if VTS owned the domain name or do we and do we have the ability to use our domain name with another third party email vendor or do we have to use the one VTS uses. Lyn will check on that as well.
Broadband Updates: The Town of Otis has gotten official approval from MBI that they are recommending we be awarded the full amount of Otis’ construction grant money. Massachusetts Technology Collaborative (MTC) will officially vote to award the grant money in January. We expect to receive all of the construction grant money as well as $25.00 for each pole on the pole survey and hopefully for design as well. When we begin construction of our broadband network, we do not anticipate a service charge for connection of original subscribers. However, if someone belatedly requests connection to an area already connected, then a service charge may be applied. We do anticipate service connections for requests after the network is built but at this time we do not know how much that may be. We hope to begin building the network in late spring or early summer and will be actively connecting users as the network is built. The Technology Committee formally voted to include the Active E Architecture (redundant ring topology) in the official network design. This was discussed last month and is unanimously approved at this meeting. Technology also unanimously agreed to spend approximately $2000 to have WG&E submit and manage the pole applications from GIS since they already have a process in place for this and we don’t have the personnel to manage this piece of the project.
Other:
Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP): We need to research different systems and their costs for potential use at Town Hall and all other municipal phones on the future municipal internet ring. Lisa will forward current costs to Frank when available. We also need to include the Town Beach and Wind Turbine locations in this configuration. In addition, we need to determine if our fire alarm systems can utilize VoIP or if they need to remain on copper. Another item we need to look at is potential future uses for broadband that DSL cannot support.
Wave Guide: Bill has an inquiry in to Verizon regarding their 5G potential and also an inquiry in to Eversource regarding Smart Grid. Rumors are they may be leasing fiber and it can’t hurt to take a look.
Next Meeting: Lisa reminded everyone that the regular January and February meetings both fall on legal holidays and we need to consider alternate dates with everything going on. Larry said we probably wouldn’t have any new information until after January 20th, so we may want to consider meeting the first week in February. This is tabled until we have more information.
The meeting was unanimously adjourned at 6:55 pm.
Respectfully submitted,
Lisa D’Orazio, recording secretary
Town of Otis Technology Committee