Town of Halifax, Vermont

OFFICE OF THE SELECTBOARD

SPECIAL MEETING MINUTES

BROADBAND COMMITTEE

REGULAR MEETING MINUTES

February 12, 2014

Call to Order

The meeting was called to order at 6:34pm at the town office.  Board members in attendance were Earl Holtz, Edee Edwards and Lewis Sumner. Broadbad Committee members present were Jessica Bruno, Earl Holtz, and Curtis Carroll. Others in attendance were Caro Thompson (VTA), Erik Amaliksen (VTA), Susan Bailey (Readsboro Planning Commission), Mark Shea (Readsboro Town Administrator), Craig and Cindy Bartosewcz (Readsboro), Mary Horne, Laura Sibilia (BDCC), Leslie Monroe, Mark Monroe, Mary Angus (Readsboro Glassworks), Bill LeQuier (Readsboro Glassworks), and Greg Marguet.

Broadband Improvement Business Districts

Thompson and Amaliksen from VTA discussed Broadband Business Improvement Districts. Citizens can go to broadbandvt.org to report an un-served address. An address is considered un-served if they have service of less than 768kbps download and 200kbps upload. The VTA required speed for funded projects is 4mbps. Thompson maintains that there is a project to bring service to every address. Check telecomvt.org, 1-800-622-4496, or broadbandvt.org to find out who is scheduled to bring you service. Satellite served addresses are not considered served. The end date for WOW (Wireless Open World) is potentially July, 2015. The Connect America project was scheduled to be completed in thirds in 2013, 2014, and 2015.

A small business district has service of not less than 10 mbps download and 3 mbps upload. Enterprise districts have a minimum of 100 mbps at $10/mbps/month.

The VTA will define the needs of the business owners and have providers respond to an RFI. The options are then to:

-Offer a grant to the service provider to build out service

-VTA Infrastructure Build

-Contribution to assist consumers establish service (cable service only)

The target for completion is the end of 2014. They estimate that it will take the providers at least a month to respond to an RFI.

Thompson and Amaliksen surveyed the business owners about how they use the internet and what their needs are. Thompson advised the town to ask Sovernet for a service offering sheet as their initial quote was very high.

Other Business

Everyone except broadband committee members left the meeting. Carroll noted that he will be resigning from the broadband committee due to increased work responsibilities. He agreed to stay on for a short while until a replacement could be found to help the ability to have a quorum.

Adjournment

The meeting was adjourned at 8:22pm.

Respectfully submitted,

Jessica Bruno

Selectboard Secretary