Office of the Broadband Committee

Town of Halifax

PO Box 127

West Halifax, Vermont 05358

Meeting Minutes

Draft: June 20, 2023

Date: Monday, May 13, 2024, 7-8:15PM

Place:  Conference Call

Attending: Committee members: Tristan Roberts, Stephan Chait, David Jones, Thomas Fischer

Visitors:  Edee Edwards (Selectboard Chair), Detlef Ronneburger (Halifax Representative to DVFiber), Cassie McLaren, Doug Parkhurst

Notes By: David Jones

Call to Order

Tristan Roberts called the meeting to order at 7:00 PM.

Changes and Additions to Agenda

None.

Review and Approval of Previous Meeting Minutes

Tristan Roberts moved to accept the minutes of the June 19, 2023 meeting as written.  Stephan Chait seconded the motion. All present agreed. There were no abstentions. The minutes were approved.

Old Business: DVFiber Status Report

Detlef Ronneburger provided an overview of DVFiber’s construction progress. Buildout is continuing; customers in Readsboro and Stamford are online; and Whitingham is being connected. Progress observed in Halifax indicates work is proceeding as planned, with service becoming available area by area beginning this year and continuing into next.

Stephan Chait asked about the feedback received during the initial pilot rollout in Readsboro. Detlef said the trial went well. Both internet and phone services were tested. There were no substantial problems. There were some adjustments in the buildout sequence due to obstacles found during construction but no change in the overall schedule.

Thomas Fischer asked if significant outages were experienced and, if so, how these were handled. Detlef said there was one outage in late fall but did not have a clear memory of the cause. He said this was addressed promptly. Full redundancy in the network as planned may not have been in place at that time. No significant outages were experienced in the most recent storm.

Tristan asked whether the revision of DVFiber’s grant agreement will have an impact in Halifax. Detlef said that the revision will affect the sequence of construction in other areas but will not affect Halifax. The scope of this grant includes buildout to all locations on the grid. Potentially, a future grant of IIJA BEAD funds will require provision of services to off-grid locations.

David Jones said a town resident was told by a DVFiber salesperson that it was best to call in to request service and not to wait for DVFiber to call those who checked service availability online and provided their contact information. David decided to call in and ask the salesperson who answered whether this was true and was told that it was. We had told everyone that checking availability was sufficient to get service as quickly as possible. Cassie McLaren was contacted as soon as she checked availability, in contrast to others who had checked availability as long as one year ago. Her salesperson said that more sign-ups would cause service to be prioritized to areas with the greatest demand. Action: Detlef will follow up to determine if calling in rather than waiting for a callback is advisable.

Cassie also noted that the salesperson she spoke with was surprised that so few people in Halifax had signed up to date.

Doug Parkhurst reported that he received a call recently in response to his action months ago to check availability. He is pleased that DVFiber reached out to him to sign up.

Edee Edwards said we want to provide accurate information to maximize customer satisfaction.

Edee reported that she contacted Green Mountain Power to ask about the status of the electrical line rebuild on Collins Road, which will have an effect on DVFiber’s buildout there.

Detlef noted that Whtingham hosted a social event to announce the availability of DVFiber. Tristan said we have discussed such an event in the past but have been in a wait-and-see mode. Detlef will get a better sense of the timing from DVFiber. David Jones said the most likely venue will be the Community Hall. He advised Laurel Copeland to sign up for service at the hall because service will need to be available there before the event can take place.

New Business: 2024 Committee Schedule, ARPA Funds Distribution, and Town Survey

2024 Meeting Schedule

Tristan expressed appreciation to the Committee members for their continuing participation. He proposed to meet every 2 months at the same time. There was consensus with this schedule.

Edee said that after June 30, the State’s requirement for a physical meeting location will be reinstated. This time is generally available at the Town Office. We will include this location in the meeting agendas.

David nominated Tristan Roberts to be Chair of the Committee. Stephan  seconded the motion. Tristan nominated David Jones to serve as Secretary of the Committee. Stephan seconded that motion. All present agreed.  Edee noted that she is not a member of the committee and did not vote.

ARPA Funds Distribution Program Development

Tristan recounted that Halifax set aside $50,000 of ARPA funds as a donation to DVFiber to be used to provide support for affordability for Halifax residents. Tristan noted two options for use of the funds: 1) subsidizing the cost of conduit construction for households that can’t afford it and 2) providing an incentive to all Halifax customers to sign up. Tristan noted that administrating a program to subsidize conduit construction would require substantial effort on our part and that a subsidy program open to all would require little effort on our part. Both would need to be set up to require little effort from DVFiber.

David noted that Readsboro decided to apply their ARPA donation to DVFiber to provide an incentive for town residents to sign up. They set an initial deadline for participation, then moved the deadline back several times to encourage participation, but to date has not used all of the funds for this purpose, suggesting that the incentive program was not having the intended effect. Therefore, David pursued the idea of using the funds to pay for sitework that would be unaffordable.

Sitework can be necessary if the path for the DVFiber conduit must be underground. Such sitework can be unaffordable for some households. David work with Detlef and Edee to develop a program and kept Tristan informed as the program shape emerged. The program would require minimal effort from DVFiber.

Part of the program is a prioritization of what households would be eligible for financial assistance. The $50,000 donation is unlikely to cover the cost of all work in town that would be both necessary and unaffordable. David proposed and the Selectboard agreed that the prioritization should be 1) homes of school children, 2) homes of first responders, and 3) homes of senior citizens. The Selectboard agreed to this prioritization. There may even be prioritization necessary within these groups. .

David constructed a survey and obtained the School Board’s agreement to administer the survey through the school Principal. The purpose of the survey is to identify which homes of school children might be eligible. Most people don’t know what work might be needed unless the wires to their homes are obviously overhead. The next step will be to go to the homes of respondents and review each site with the family.

David also noted that the town will need to issue an RFP to hire one or more vendors to do the work at fixed unit prices.  David asked the Selectboard to appoint him as the program administrator so that we can keep track of commitments made against the available funds.

Edee noted that the Selectboard did not consider any use  of the $50,000 other than helping to pay for sitework that would be unaffordable. The Selectboard decided to pursue this program and appointed David as the program administrator. She said she hoped all of the funds would be used for the intended purpose and none would need to be returned unspent.

Stephan asked how payments will be made and whether all of the funds would be used. David said the RFP will ask vendors to commit to issuing a single invoice each month that would include records of work completed during the month and that the administrator acting on behalf of the town would review all invoices and submit approved invoices to DVFiber for payment. DVFiber will need only to record the invoices and make payment. The invoices will not include the names or addresses of households that are served. David said that he would be shocked if we were unable to spend the full $50,000.

David asked if some committee members would be willing to help inspect the homes of families that respond to the survey. Many people don’t know what to look for and need help to understand.

Tristan, Tom Fischer, Detlef, and Cassie said they would help. David will arrange a Saturday AM date that works for all. We will meet at the Community Hall during Café hours.  Another next step will be to ask for the Selectboard’s permission to issue a request for bids.

Detlef said we also need to communicate to all town residents generally about what sitework may be needed to prepare for installation when it becomes available.

Town Survey

Tristan noted that Halifax does not have the information about which residents have expressed interest in DVFiber and wondered if DVFiber would communicate to all who did that we can help them determine if pre-installation work is needed. David recommended that such a communication could tell everyone that help is available to identify whether they are ready for installation and what they may need to do but should not mention the availability of funds because we don’t even know if the $50,000 will be enough to cover the needs of the initial priority group.

Tristan believes we need to develop a town directory to enable outreach on this issue and others regardless of whether we can get DVFiber to communicate on this specific topic. Halifax has obtained a grant to help with energy efficiency and could want to spend a portion of this grant to conduct a town-wide survey to reach all households that want to be in closer touch with town business. We could offer to help any respondent to assess their readiness for installation.

David noted that it is hard to describe in a few words what it means to be ready for DVFiber. Tristan said we could indicate readiness assessment as a benefit of providing   contact information.

Stephan said the Clambake and a a primary election in August could provide opportunities to hand out surveys in person, which might gain a good response, and to distribute flyers describing the connectivity program. Tristan said that a mailing will be needed to reach new residents that don’t know of town events and new or existing residents that don’t come to events. There are reasons to do a mailing in addition to in-person outreach at events. He will propose such a mailing to the Selectboard. David said that he will be happy to join a work party to get a mailing out.

David said he learned that most of the school parents are comfortable with providing information online. Those that respond online will spare us the task of entering data.

Other Business

None

Hearing of Visitors

None.

Adjournment

Stephan moved to adjourn. Tristan seconded the motion. All present agreed. The meeting was adjourned at 8:14PM. Tristan thanked everyone for attending.