Otis Technology Committee
Minutes for Meeting of
November 21, 2016
Otis Town Hall
Meeting called to order at 6:00 pm and is being recorded and a quorum is present.
Present: Bill Hiller, George Mabee, Frank Tolopko, and Lisa D’Orazio
Absent: Larry Gould, Laurie Flower
Others Present: Dave Rice
Approval of Meeting Minutes: The October 17, 2016 Technology meeting minutes were unanimously approved as written.
Broadband Updates: The Pole Survey has been completed by Westfield Gas & Electric. The Surety Bonds and insurances were submitted last week. Verizon has provided us with a software application that we will need to use to submit our pole applications. We have about 2900 poles we need to apply for. Licensing needs to happen right away and make ready work will take about six months to complete. Regarding the design of the network, we all agreed that a ring topology would probably be the best design in order to keep the access as robust as possible. The ring architecture will probably cost a little more, but it would guarantee less people are affected should an outage occur. If Otis should have an outage with the other topology design, it is possible the entire town could be out all at the same time. We also hope to have a municipal ring for all town buildings and main areas. Bill and Larry will be meeting with Westfield in early December and we are expecting hard numbers from that meeting. During discussion, it was also noted that MBI had finally released their RFP for network operators. It appears Frontier will be contracted for servicing Monterey, Tolland, Sandisfield, New Marlborough, Tyringham, and perhaps Blandford. These towns do not want to do a bond, so they are looking at a possible joint RFP for services with this vendor. Frontier is proposing megabyte usage and WG&E is proposing gigabyte usage. Frontier is also requiring a fifteen year commitment. Frontier is located in Connecticut and is planning to build out from the state line out to their contracted areas.
Other:
Printers: We are still waiting to hear from Berkshire Graphics as to whether there are software upgrades to connect the Canon ir3080 and the Kyocera 4050 to the new Microsoft server. Lisa will contact them tomorrow if she doesn’t hear from them first. The Canon ir3080 needs to be moved up to the Town Clerk’s office soon as their existing printer/copier is starting to have problems again.
Hal’s Letter: Because Hal brought back up the documents he cannot find that we should have, Bill suggested that we come up with an Electronic Filing Policy. After discussion all agreed on three principles: all documents need to be stored on the town’s main server, documents cannot physically go home with anyone but copies can be distributed, and documents cannot be backed up if kept on Google Docs, so we should develop a server share system that works the same way as VPN methodology.
Wind Project: Everyone was reminded that this was a different committee, but Bill, who is a member of that committee as well, let us know that Eversource has finally approved a transformer specification so we can now go ahead and order equipment. And Tryon just finished the soil compaction analysis. Also, Eversource will now be purchasing the generated electricity from us at a higher rate than our previous agreement. The concrete pad for the turbine will probably be poured in the spring.
VTH Demonstration: Virtual Town Hall, our website owner, will be holding an online demonstration of their upgraded platform on Tuesday November 29 at 3:00 pm in the Town Clerk’s office. Lisa will definitely be there as she is the backup super user. Frank and George will also be there if their schedules permit.
Holiday Party: Everyone was reminded to respond to Heather if they planned to attend the party.
Emails: Lisa caught everyone up with the latest emails to the committee, including SHI, and noted Larry had responded to the question about broadband for Big Island.
The meeting was unanimously adjourned at 7:00 pm.
Respectfully submitted,
Lisa D’Orazio, recording secretary
Town of Otis Technology Committee
List of Documents
A copy of Bill’s email requesting we discuss the Electronic Filing Policy will be filed with these meeting minutes.
A copy of Lyn’s email inviting Technology Committee members to attend the online demonstration will be filed with these meeting minutes.
A copy of MBI’s email announcing the RFP and a copy of the RFP itself will be filed with these meeting minutes.
A copy of the Holiday Party invitation and copies of the Technology emails will be filed with these meeting minutes.