Coordinator report September 10, 2015

The Town's LA4, the town's real property valuation has been approved by
DOR. Based on market sales, the numbers are down a few percent. This
won't affect the town's total tax levy however it will raise the tax
rate as this is our basis for apportionment of taxes.

I need the board to perfect our appointments to WiredWest delegate so I
am posting this meeting as well to be a meeting of the Muni Light Plant
Commission and we will report on their form. I suggest we leave the
"manager" piece blank.

We haven't heard back from legal counsel regarding the employee safety
perceived issue.  No employee has given notice to the Town on the
subject. Terry, Beth and I signed a statement supporting the Selectboard
prohibition against firearms in the town hall.  Chief Shoemaker and
Selectboard Chair Magi agree that meetings do not require a continuous
police presence; an officer on patrol is sufficient.

We got the WiredWest sign-up data so I can market to WBS customers who
have not responded. 92 have sent in deposits to date. WBS has 180
customers. I'll market to WBS customers with the October billing cycle.

There have been changes at the school. A new School Committee agenda
format is being tried and includes addition of an unfinished business
item so things may be discussed and though not acted on get
consideration in the future. Our new Superintendent is working on a Long
Range or Strategic Plan. The WCS kitchen has been closed and the staff
assigned to Northfield. We now operate on the same model as senior
meals. There is a new expectation regarding principals attending School
Committee meetings which is now "as needed". We are exploring an
opportunity with Winchester to receive their high school students on a
tuition basis. They currently do this with Keene under an exclusive
agreement that would have to be changed. There has been reassignment of
janitorial staff at WCS. Rich Field is working on repairing the PA
system at WCS.

I called in Verizon to get the POTS (plain old telephone system) lines
at town hall working for the elevator and alarm system. They were
quickly responsive and got dial tone restored.

An anonymous complaint about the new Deere loader has resulted in an
inquiry by the Inspector General's office. We bought the loader under
state bid VEH93. The dealership has been helpful further documenting
this transaction.

Sept 29 there is scheduled a FERC pipeline scoping hearing at Franklin
Pierce College Fieldhouse at 6 pm. In addition FERC has extended the
scoping comment period to October 16th.

Assessors are advertising a tax classification hearing for some time in
October during the regular board meeting. This is a regular exercise and
meaningless as we don't have a commercial or industrial base.

State Senate and Gov. Baker propose raising net meter credit cap from
875 to 1600 megawatts. National Grid has achieved the current 5% cap
which means they don't have to accept more net metering credit projects
than currently have reservations. Our Seaboard project has a
reservation. The proposal would apply statewide and not be defined
regionally or by utility service area.

Flood insurance, which isn't required of many Warwick homes, has
undergone regulatory change. Required coverage can now be the mortgage
balance only.

Frankly County Selectboard Association meets Sept. 17 in S. Deerfield at
the Polish American Club. The meeting topic is how local government can
make our region more attractive to business growth and talented
individuals.

The public records law debate will be back in the fall session. MA Sec.
of State has filed for a referendum to get changes enacted. MMA's point
about unfairness of no revenue side may have helped stall this in
committee over the summer.

Our delivered electricity this month cost 19.2 cents per kWh. I am using
17 cents to model for the 20 year net meter credit agreement with
Seaboard.

Town Clerk attempted to access legal counsel directly. When she asked
me, I approved legal counsel reviewing her recall resolution and
petition form.  I note it will cost the town money to have this
election. The cost of the special election for the Tech School was $1300
which they paid. This expense will fall on the taxpayers.

I am investigating the option of leasing unused radio spectrum from a
cellular carrier and deploying LTE (Long Term Evolution) topology with a
virtual (cloud based) core network switch. Each node is able to serve 60
active customers with 20 - 40 Mbps depending on available radio channel
width. In this scenario we'd be using licensed cellular radio
frequencies on our own radio data network. To do so we'd need to lease
unused airwaves from Sprint, Verizon, or T-Mobile who own the license
and don't use the spectrum we want. They paid a lot of money for it and
could get some revenue for something they own and do not use. We don't
have the scale to deploy a LTE core network switch (about $4 million)
but we can lease that service on one that lives in the "cloud". This is
called virtualization.  This option could be a longer term Internet
solution, especially if we could lease in the 700 MHz range. The gear
for the customer end is commodity priced at about $100 per unit and
called a "hotspot" and requires no installation skill. You plug it into
AC power, it connects to the LTE network, and its embedded Wi-Fi allows
you to connect your device to the Internet. When required, due to a
weaker signal, we would install a directional fixed radio on a home as
we now do. One advantage of licensed radio spectrum is that it is
allowable to operate at higher power levels than we are permitted to
employ in the 900 MHz and 2.4 GHz "public" radio spaces we use. This
could be our wireless solution for our hardest to reach customers; one
that meets the current definition of broadband.

While IP (Internet Protocol) phone will work on a data network as
described above with a cellphone app or a hardware device (e.g.
MagicJack), 2G Cell phone with a cellular network carrier is still
needed. The LTE project wouldn't be any part of a mobile phone carrier.
We'd only be leasing the airwaves they are not using. The Vanu solution
from Coverageco.com for voice calls is our best bet for mobile voice.

MBI wants to attend a Selectboard meeting October 26. I have penned them
in.

I attempted to file to have the Town become an official "intervener" in
the FERC pipeline process. The application was rejected because no
formal / full application by the pipeline has been entered. 
 
Household hazardous waste day is October 3.