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Date: 5/18/2023
EAST LONGMEADOW — On June 6, East Longmeadow residents will have the opportunity to vote on whether to create a municipal light plant, the administrative infrastructure that would allow the town to offer fiber optic internet to residents.
“A municipal light plant is a form of government structure for utilities operated by municipalities,” Deputy Town Manager Tom Christensen said. “One is required by the state if the municipality is supplying electric, gas or telecommunications.” The Town Council voted to create a municipal light plant in fiscal year 2022 and affirmed that vote in the following fiscal year, as required by state law. Now, the residents need to ratify it in a referendum.
Despite the term municipal light plant, Information Technology Director Ryan Quimby said East Longmeadow is only interested in pursuing a public internet utility. East Longmeadow Cable Access Television Director and Broadband Committee Chair, Don Maki said the committee has been exploring the creation of a town-owned fiber optic internet system since 2019.
“We’re not starting from scratch,” said Quimby. “We already have our core built out.” The town’s buildings are already connected by a fiber optic network that was established in 2005 and expanded in subsequent years, through grants or capital project funding.
The town would like to take the next step toward using a fiber optic system to make public internet available to residents.
“There hasn’t been any opposition to us exploring more options,” Christiansen said of the resident response at Town Council meetings on the issue. He added that in every survey for the Master Plan, “the people in town [have been] interested in another option.
Before the town can move further, however, state law requires the town to adopt a municipal light plant.
“The vote is only to see what we can do,” Christiansen said, adding that the vote is non-binding. Even if the vote passes, he said, “We don’t have to do anything.”
There is no cost involved in the municipal light plant question that is on the ballot. If the town follows through with the possibility of offering fiber optic internet option, Christiansen said there would be some cost involved in administration of such a program, but that cost would be borne by the users. Instead of funding the infrastructure and administration through taxes, the goal is to make the system self-sustaining via an enterprise fund, which Christiansen said would be possible if 30% of homeowners commit to the system. Christiansen said the Broadband Committee believes it could offer the “more efficient, faster” internet at “a better price” than commercial providers.
The system would be built out in phases related to where the most interest is from residents. The town would work with a third-party internet service provider, which would relieve the town from the work of marketing and engineering. Maki said, “It’s almost impossible to do without a third party who’s already done this work.”
Christiansen, Maki and Quimby all see the need for such a utility. Maki said that when COVID-19 “put all the kids home from school and the people home from work, it highlighted the need” for high-speed internet. Quimby added that if remote learning is needed again, the town could push a dedicated “East Longmeadow remote learning” network to residents, eliminating the chance that so many users might slow down speeds on a single network. Maki explained that that is because each strand of fiber in the cable can run multiple signals through different colors, or wavelengths, of light.
Maki also pointed out that fiber optic internet could be used in the design industry, in information technology and several other industries that require high speed connections. Having a system in town could encourage companies and people who work from home to move to East Longmeadow. “That’s an economic development issue, as far as I’m concerned,” he said.
But Quimby pointed out, the first step is still needed. “A lot of these steps can’t happen until we have a [municipal light plant],” he said.
For more information, visit eastlongmeadowma.gov or contact Christensen at 413-525-5400, ext. 1101, or Maki at 413-525-4220.