February 4, 2019

6:00 pm

Meeting called to order at 6:03 pm in the Town Hall Conference Room and a quorum is present.

Present: Bill Hiller, Larry Gould, Laurie Flower, Lisa D’Orazio

Approval of Meeting Minutes. The November 19, 2018 meeting minutes were unanimously approved as written with Laurie abstaining.

Broadband Updates. We currently have 949 applicants with 221 requesting connections. Installations are beginning in Phase 3 this week and Sertex is running strand in Phase 6.

Vadar Implementation. We are moving forward with the project.

Broadband Insurance. Cabot has proposed $3 Million dollars worth of coverage. The first plan will cost the town $19,500 annually with a $10,000 deductible and the second plan will cost $15,000 with a $25,000 deductible. This will be needed during construction for coverage in case of massive pole destruction. Bill is hoping we can get quarterly payments for these plans. PURMA can cover us after all construction has been completed and should cost us less money.

Review FY2020 Budgets. For the most part the figures were reasonable at presented a significant reduction over the previous year and the budget was approved

Other:

Backhaul Charges. Whip City Fiber has finally caught up with our backhaul data service charges. If Blandford does decide to go through Otis’ hut for service, that may increase our backhaul another 1 gigabyte.

Projector and Screen for Movie Night. Patricia presented three quotes for screens and projectors for use during movie nights. Technology agreed having a ceiling mounted screen in the gym may be a good idea, but they want to look into what can be done wirelessly using the town wi-fi before they commit to anything. We also looked at what Rec currently has (a large screen TV on a cart) and decided that was good enough for now. Laurie also mentioned the school does have projectors we can sign out if we need them.

The meeting was adjourned at 6:55 pm.

Respectfully submitted,

Lisa D’Orazio, recording secretary

Town of Otis Technology Committee