Use this search box to find articles that have run in our newspapers over the last several years.
Date: 12/3/2020
WILBRAHAM – The Wilbraham Select Board voted on Nov. 30 to approve the purchase of a list of supplies and services for the Hampden-Wilbraham Regional School District (HWRSD).
The items, totaling roughly $150,000 are expected to be paid for out of reimbursement grants from federal coronavirus relief funds. The district has exhausted its relief funding, while the towns of Wilbraham and Hampden have more funding than they can spend by the Dec. 30 deadline. Hampden agreed to contribute 25 percent of what Wilbraham gives to the district, corresponding to the split in enrollment between the towns.
The proposal was first brought to the town by Town Administrator Nick Breault and HWRSD Director of Finance and Operations Aaron Osbourne on Nov. 2. A concern soon arose that not all of the items on the list would be eligible for reimbursement under the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)'s shifting guidelines.
At the Nov. 30 meeting, Breault told the board that FEMA had informed the town accountant that the agency would only reimburse costs related to first responders fighting COVID-19. The Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency (MEMA) had said that there would be a “reconciliation round” of funding in December, in which items not paid for by FEMA would “presumably” be reimbursed by MEMA. The town was also told that only a two month supply of items would be reimbursed.
Breault summed up the mixed messages from the two agencies, saying, “We don’t have any guarantees of reimbursement.”
It wasn’t all bad news, however, as Breault reported that the HWRSD had voted to ensure that if the town is not reimbursed, the school district will pay the town back. With this assurance, the board voted to approve the purchases.
Jeff Christensen, president of Entry Point Networks with whom the town is working on municipal internet feasibility, provided an update on the status of the municipal broadband project. He said that the town had two decisions to make regarding the broadband business model. The first was to decide whether the municipality itself should become an internet service provider (ISP). If so, the town would directly compete with other internet providers, such as Charter.
The second decision determines what companies are allowed to use the physical network that the town would install. Wilbraham could choose to allow a single provider, to use the network, or it could opt for an “open access” model.
Select Board Chair Robert Russell asked for the opinions of Breault and Nate Delong, both of whom have been working with Christensen on the municipal internet project. Breault weighed in on the second question and said that “variety is a good selling point” to potential customers in town. Delong agreed.
He said that if Wilbraham partnered with a single ISP on its network or became an ISP itself, they would go head to head with Charter, which currently supplies the majority of internet customers in the town. In instances where other towns had done something similar, Delong said, Charter has lowered its prices to a point where the municipal company could not compete. However, if multiple ISPs were allowed to compete using Wilbraham’s infrastructure, he argued, it wouldn’t be feasible for Charter to use that strategy against them all. He said he would prefer if the town “owned the pipes and could control what went through them.”
Christensen advocated for the town to have residents commit to signing up for the network before any infrastructure work is done. He compared the infrastructure to a sewer hookup or other utility service. He argued that if enough people committed to using the system, Charter would be competing for far fewer customers than would be worth lowering prices. He also spoke in favor of a multiple ISP model but admitted that he had a bias toward it because Entry Point Networks specializes in open access networks.
The board took the decisions under consideration.
For the next step in the feasibility process, Breault asked residents to volunteer their internet bills with their names and personal identification numbers redacted, though the address would be required. He said the bills can be put in the dropbox outside the town hall or mailed to him at the town hall.