Otis Technology Committee
Minutes for Meeting of
September 13, 2016
Otis Town Hall
Meeting called to order at 6:00 pm and is being recorded and a quorum is present.
Present: Larry Gould, Bill Hiller, George Mabee, Lisa D’Orazio, Frank Tolopko, and Laurie Flower
Others Present: Ken Mayer
Approval of Meeting Minutes: The August 11, 2016 Technology meeting minutes were unanimously approved as written.
Computer Policy: A copy of Bill’s original draft and Frank’s rewritten draft were made available to everyone. The committee members unanimously decided to use Frank’s version, as it had all the important points in Bill’s, and modify it so the first two paragraphs will become an introductory cover letter, and the rest will be the actual Computer Usage Policy.
Review Grant Expenditures: The grant has been spent on all the materials we need to rewire Otis Town Hall and set up our internet security and computers per the Commonwealth of MA recommendations. Equipment is here, but nothing has been hooked up yet. The wireless hot spots are going in first. Next steps are the wired spots beginning with Accounting and then working through room by room. Then we can set up the Town Hall parking lot for wifi usage.
Broadband Updates: The Pole Survey has been completed by Westfield Gas & Electric. Preliminary pole counts and their status were presented to committee members. Of the 127 poles with heavy make ready work, 35 are marked as condemned as reported by Eversource. There will be a call on Friday with WG&E, Larry, and Bill to discuss the findings and then Larry and Bill can put numbers together to project our expected make ready costs. Both MBI and WiredWest had projected that make ready costs would be about 20% of the total project costs, so we are expecting make ready cost totals to be a maximum of about $1 Million. Bill and Larry both hope to have these figures ready in a week or two and will send them out. Then Technology can meet again and decide when to present the cost findings to the general public. MBI has designated $1 Million towards construction costs from the grant money and up to $800,000 for planning and design, but we may not be reimbursed by them for the full amount set aside. There are rumors that there may be a shortage of glass for the fiber optic cable in the near future so we need to keep this in mind. All members of Technology Committee unanimously agreed we would bill customers as they are attached during construction to begin accumulating revenue as soon as possible.
Other:
Website Rules to add Business Listings: Chris presented to the committee suggested modifications to the Business Rules. He added additional wording to rule #4 and added rule #5. The committee unanimously agreed Chris’ changes were adequate to cover the town’s needs and agreed to adopt them into the official website business rules.
The meeting was unanimously adjourned at 6:52 pm.
Respectfully submitted,
Lisa D’Orazio, recording secretary
Town of Otis Technology Committee
List of Documents
A copy of Bill’s draft of the Otis Computer Policy will be filed with these meeting minutes.
A copy of Frank’s draft of the Otis Computer Policy will be filed with these meeting minutes.
A copy of the Pole Survey results documented by Larry will be filed with these meeting minutes.
A copy of Chris’ additions to the Website Business Rules and a revised copy of the Website Business Rules will be filed with these meeting minutes.