Voters at the May 3 Annual Town Meeting will be asked to approve an article asking the selectboard to join discussions with some 30 other Western Massachusetts towns about forming an interlocal nonprofit company to provide universal high-speed Internet service here.
Your broadband committee has scheduled an informational meeting at the Town Hall on Wednesday, April 21, at 7 p.m. to tell you about this proposal and answer your questions.
It seems clear that the commercial Internet providers such as Verizon and Comcast will never bring universal access to the small towns in Western Massachusetts. So representatives of selectboards and broadband committees have formed WiredWest Communications, with the intention of developing a business plan; securing funding from private and public loans and grants; and building a fiber optic network -- without asking the towns to assume any burden of debt.
At the meeting we will go into the plan in as much detail as voters want. Copies of the warrant article (which asks for no money, only an expression of interest) will be available; if there are any questions about the article, we will answer them, too.
Similar efforts are underway in Vermont and New Hampshire and we have a body of knowledge and experience to draw on.
In case people want more detailed info before the meeting, or if they can't make the meeting, please visit http://wired-west.net.
Miryam Williamson