SOUTHWICK — After not getting the two-thirds needed for the borrowing authorization to build a town-owned fiber-optic network at Town Meeting, Select Board member Douglas Moglin wants the full board to discuss if it might be possible to move forward on a network that would be significantly a smaller in scale.
And two major reasons are that the town has already encumbered $900,000 of American Rescue Plan Act funds and a $250,000 state grant that must be used for the network’s construction.
“We also have a grant and APRA money allocated to this project … that money cannot be repurposed. It is dedicated to a municipal fiber project,” Moglin said during the board’s meeting Monday night.
With Town Hall, the Police Department, and the Fire Department already connected to a Whip City Fiber fiber-optic cable that was extended off the rail trail when it was being built, Moglin suggested connecting the Southwick-Tolland-Granville Regional School District’s schools to the cable, as well as the Public Library and the DPW facility on College Highway.
He said those connections would need to be figured out “budgetarily.”
But he added that cable, when being extended to the library and schools, could be routed in a way that would allow the homeowners in the Birchwood and Fernwood neighborhoods to subscribe to the network as a “pilot” program.
“And then come back and say 60%, 80%, 10% of the people signed up for the project — here’s the viability of the project,” Moglin said.
He also said that the cable run to the library, which is across the street from the town’s Industrial Park, could offer businesses that would pay more for the service a chance to connect.
Another avenue Moglin wanted to explore was the possibility of holding a Special Town Meeting that would focus on just the fiber-optic network issue because it was “a big policy decision,” but with a caveat.
“I’m not a proponent of [repackaging] the project to get a friendlier crowd,” he said.
However, he considered the issue significant enough to warrant one meeting where the information would be presented in a fuller way for those who may need additional information before deciding.
At Town Meeting on May 20, the borrowing authorization, which needed a two-thirds majority, missed it by 14 votes. Of the 578 who voted, 354 voted yes and 204 voted no.
He said some kind of forum was needed for feedback, from Town Meeting or others to “learn if there is a way forward … this is critical infrastructure.”
He also floated the idea of reconstituting the High Speed Internet Committee, which did much of the research on the equipment needed, the cost, and who would build it — they chose Whip City Fiber.
One of the unknowns before the Town Meeting vote was what would be the “make ready” cost of the construction.
Moglin said the bills for the utility pole applications had arrived last week — each pole where cable would be hung needed to be documented and an application submitted to the companies now using the pole.
Each pole would have a cost to hang the cable, some more, some less.
“The make-ready work is now ready to be made ready … of course we have no money to do,” he said.
Select Board member Diane Gale, who had been silent, asked Moglin a question about the pole applications.
“We don’t have to reapply do we?” she asked.
Moglin said it depends.
“If they sit too long, we’d probably have to throw them out and start over,” he said, adding, “We don’t want to give up the locations on those poles. We cannot wait too long.”
Because of that urgency, he asked if the board could have a fuller discussion on the path forward during its first or second meeting in July.
Newly elected board member Russell Anderson, who, like Gale, had stay quiet while Moglin was talking suggested a reason the borrowing authorization was defeated, spoke up.
“The comments I heard was that it was the sticker shock. I don’t know if there’s another way of doing it.”
Gale said that residents may have wanted a “proof of concept” of the project and suggested highlighting West Springfield. Its network is currently being built by Whip City Fiber.
Gale, the board’s newly elected chair, agreed to put the subject on the agenda for upcoming meetings for discussion.
