Minutes
Present: Susan Clark, Donald Cullman, Wes Higgins, Leon Karvelis, Henry Polio
Leon called the meeting to order at 2pm
The October 8th minutes were reviewed. Susan noted Mr. Labich name was misspelled.
Motion: To approve the minutes of the October 8th, 2015 meeting minutes. Clark, Polio. Approved 4-0
Susan related the events that took place with her meeting with Frontier Communications. Frontier, in response to the proposal of Macquarie to lead the development of the infrastructure that would provide high speed internet service to some cities in Connecticut, has offered an alternative plan to New Haven, Danbury, and NW Connect that would cover all the households in the community and cost in the area of $20 per household per month for five years and then lower the price charges towards the end of the 20 year contract period. Frontier would offer high speed service of 1 gigabit to users for an additional charge of roughly $100 a month. The actual plan prices, billing methods, and revenue sharing are currently open for negotiation discussions with the municipalities. The provided service would be open to other ISP firms for their customers.
The committee discussed a number of possible avenues for the Town to consider regarding the Frontier proposal- perhaps joining a coalition of smaller towns or partnering with one larger city. Susan offered to contact Frontier again to arrange a meeting with additional Town officials to discuss the concept in more detail.
Leon spoke with Chuck Burnham, who put him in touch with David Allain who is now the Eversource director in charge of natural gas distribution for Connecticut. Chuck made clear that Eversource didn’t intend to extend the gas line that now serves Meadow Ridge into the Georgetown community until an “anchor” customer is found to justify the expense incurred. The committee decided that Wes should contact the Southern Ct Gas officials who own the gas main that runs on Route 57 to the Redding/Weston border and is the source of the natural gas that Eversource sells to Meadow Ridge and try to ascertain with their help the potential costs and revenue that would result from an extension of the main into Georgetown.
Motion to adjourn was made at 2.50 pm. Polio, Clark. Approved 5-0
Minutes submitted by Wes Higgins