Otis Technology Committee
Minutes for Meeting of
October 17, 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, Frank Tolopko, and Laurie Flower
Absent: Lisa D’Orazio
Others Present: Ken Mayer, Michael and Chris Moretz, Cory Willey
Approval of Meeting Minutes: The September 13, 2016 Technology meeting minutes were unanimously approved as written.
Broadband Updates: The Pole Survey has been completed by Westfield Gas & Electric. We are beginning to submit the pole license applications, submitted the master agreements, and are beginning our broadband design. Next steps are to determine what the routes would actually be and where to run the fiber to make the routes continuous. Licensing needs to happen right away and make ready work will take about six months to complete. Some of the fiber has long lead times and we still have not decided how far in from the poles the town will pay for to connect. We plan to drop to as close to 100% of the homes in town as we can get. Once the design is complete we can generate a bill of materials and from that we can purchase the fiber concentrating on the long lead time materials first.
Other:
In House Network: It is up and running and it works. The sonic wall is fed and the old network has been back fed. We need to move the server and then run wires. Doing this has put much needed security on our network. Once the wires have been run we should see improved speeds.
Library: George suggested we may need to update the keyfob at the Library. Larry says we should talk with them about it.
Broadband Meeting with Neighboring Towns: Otis hosted a meeting with Westfield Gas & Electric on Friday from 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm. Blandford, Becket, Tolland, Sandisfield, Monterey, and Tyringham were allowed two representatives each to attend. WG&E presented their approach with Otis. It will be up to each town to contact WG&E or not. WG&E is planned to be Otis’ network operator and internet service provider (ISP).
The meeting was unanimously adjourned at 6:42 pm.
Respectfully submitted,
Lisa D’Orazio, recording secretary
Town of Otis Technology Committee