Town of Warwick Selectboard April 11, 2016 Minutes Members present: Dawn Magi, Lawrence Pruyne, Nick Arguimbau (via Remote Participation) Others present: Town Coordinator David Young, Town Secretary and Town Clerk Rosa Fratangelo, Broadband Committee Chair Tom Wyatt, WiredWest Representative John Bradford, Planning Board Chair Ted Cady, Broadband Committee members Scott Seago, Brad Compton, Moderator David Koester, Warwick Representative to the Municipal Coalition Against the Pipeline and ZBA member Miryam Williamson, Lloyd Goodnow, Jim Erviti, Steve Ruggiero, Jon Calcari, Jared Robinson (Athol Daily News) I. Call to Order Chair Magi called the meeting to order at 6:00 pm in the Town Hall. Arguimbau participated via remote participation. II. Minutes Pruyne MOVED to approve the minutes of March 28, 2016 as printed. Arguimbau SECONDED. Motion CARRIED 3-0-0: Magi - AYE; Pruyne - AYE; Arguimbau - AYE. III. Presentations and Discussions 1. Gas Pipeline--Miryam Williamson said that there will be a meeting tomorrow (April 12th) to review the Coalition's 12A testimony for DPU. 2. Vote to Close ATM Warrant --Young reminded the Board that they had voted on April 7th to open the ATM warrant for petition articles, and needed to vote a date and time to close the warrant. Pruyne MOVED to close the Annual Town Meeting warrant on Monday, April 18, 2016 at 5 p.m. Magi SECONDED. Motion CARRIED 3-0-0: Magi - AYE; Pruyne - AYE; Arguimbau - AYE. 3. Establish Liberty Tree Donation Account--Young said that three maple trees had been cut down on Town Common, and that we have contracted with Liberty Elm Society in Keene to purchase five blight resistant elm trees for $99.00 each. The trees are five foot saplings and come with a brass plaque. Three trees will be planted on Town Common, and two at Warwick Community School. Young said that there will be a tree planting ceremony at WCS on Thursday, April 28th at 9:15 a.m. Young asked the Board to vote to establish a Liberty Tree Donation Account. He explained that if fifty trees are purchased for $99.00 apiece, the Liberty Elm Society will donate a $4,000.00 tree and brass plaque to the Town. Young noted that if the goal is not reached, the donations will be returned to the donors. Arguimbau suggested planting a mix of chestnuts and elms so as to avoid trees of the same species all in a row and vulnerable to the same blight. Pruyne MOVED to establish the Liberty Tree Donation Account. Arguimbau SECONDED. Motion CARRIED 3-0-0: Magi - AYE; Pruyne - AYE; Arguimbau - AYE. 4. Broadband--John Bradford said that at the last meeting for several area towns involved in the Sub-regional Broadband group held in Wendell there was a discussion about forming a smaller group to obtain funding from MBI. He said the hope is for a combination of wireless and fiber, and noted that while the group is trying to build something new, there didn't seem to be much in it for Warwick. Tom Wyatt said that there will be another meeting on April 14th; Magi said she would attend, and Wyatt said he would as well provided the Broadband Committee meeting ends in time. Wyatt spoke "as a resident of Town" and gave his comments on Young's proposal for new wireless upgrade and expansion, which requires an ATM article to borrow $240,000.00. He identified "two major weaknesses" - the digital divide and management. Wyatt explained that the digital divide refers to the problem of not all Warwick Broadband Service (WBS) subscribers receiving the same quality of service. He said those who get their signal of off the cell tower have 1mbps (+ or -) download service, while others in different sectors of the system can receive in the vicinity of 10 mbps with full video streaming capability. Wyatt said that solving the inequity of service in town needed to be the first priority before adding any more customers. He favored a minimum 25 mbps download/ 3mbps upload across the whole town and no new borrowing. Wyatt said that within six months there will be information from the State on whom we could partner with for funding, and that a Special Town Meeting could then be held. Arguimbau asked how many subscribers had the slower service versus the faster; Young said that he didn't have the exact numbers but that the majority of subscribers are at the slower end and more than half cannot get more than 3 mbps download. Wyatt addressed the second weakness, management. He said that Young had done something no one else in western Massachusetts has done, and credited Young's abilities, knowledge and innovative thinking with making this possible. Wyatt said that Young is weaker on documentation and transparency, and noted that this is a business so more supervision and reporting are important. He suggested offering early adopter of WBS a partial refund of their $500.00 installation fee because the current fee is much lower, and said that this decision would rest with the policy makers. Wyatt said that bandwidth sold out of town should be looked at with respect to total bandwidth since some subscribers in Town have inadequate service. Arguimbau asked how many out of town subscribers there are; Young said less than ten. Wyatt said that a service business must prioritize customers and that some have complained that their complaints have been met with an indifferent response from Young. Wyatt stressed that the priority is to deal with the digital divide and improve service, and that the Selectboard needs to address the management issues. He said that it was unwise to spend $240,000.00. Bradford said that there has been constant upgrading this year, and that they will try to get broadband to anyone who wants it as well as trying to improve poor service. He said that while some of what Wyatt said makes sense, everything costs money and that we need to look carefully at that. Young said that he was against giving money back to the early subscribers. Brad Compton said that WBS is much better for him than Hughes Net, while Ruggiero said that while he has never had WBS, Hughes Net allows him to run a business with no trouble. Cady expressed concern that the $240,000.00 proposal had not yet been properly vetted, and that we needed to consider that the cell tower has no back-up generator and should have one to allow for connectivity in a power outage. Williamson said that she had no idea that, as an early adopter, she owned the equipment and does not want to have seven year old outdated equipment. Jim Erviti asked what the best case scenario that could be reasonably expected for all citizens of Warwick; Young responded fiber at $2.5 million. Young noted that $240,000.00 buys us 25 mbps download and 3 mbps upload, He explained that the borrowing would be repaid from the Broadband operating budget and would have no impact on the tax levy. Pruyne inquired if there were a market outside of town if the gold standard of 20-25 mbps were to be reached so that we could earn more money from the system. Young said that the shape of Warwick's landmass is favorable to wireless and that we should be in a position to offer competition in the future. Bradford said that out of town possibilities depend upon what people want to pay for service. Williamson said that if selling bandwidth out of town would inconvenience residents, the Selectboard should make this a policy decision. Young said that the Board has previously signed an MOA with several entities to sell bandwidth out of town. Wyatt echoed Williamson's opinion that policy matters need to come before the Selectboard. He also said that the Broadband Committee needs regular reports and information from WBS. Bradford said that the Broadband Committee could be in charge of gathering information for presentation to the Selectboard. Magi asked for the Broadband Committee's recommendation. Wyatt said moving away from fiber as WiredWest is embroiled in a mess with MBI and the State, and we have a good alternative in WBS. He reiterated that his biggest personal concern is management issues. Compton said that Young's proposal is a good alternative, but more documentation and clear description to make it easily explained at Town Meeting. Scott Seago said that even though there should be no impact on the tax levy, an operating budget and amortization should be shown. Young said the interest on the borrowing would be one half of one percent. Wyatt said that as a committee, the Broadband Committee has yet to reach a recommendation. Magi asked for a volunteer to clearly explain things at the ATM; both Wyatt and Bradford offered to do so. Ruggiero wanted to wait a few months for a Special Town Meeting rather than rush to the ATM in less than one month's time. Bradford said that there is a short window of opportunity to get the radios up. Erviti asked for an explanation of some terms for those of us who do not understand them. Bradford said that the Broadband Committee will take that on as well. 5. FY 15 Annual Town Report--Young said that he had everything he needs and that the FY 15 Annual Town Report will go to print in about a week. 6. FY 17 Budget and Articles--Young said that there will be a Special Town Meeting on Monday, May 2nd at 7 p.m. for two articles involving items in the current fiscal year. The articles pertain to a donation to the Town of Montague for its intervention at the DPU and authorization of Broadband Enterprise Fund capital outlay in the amount of $20,000.00. Young said that the $22,000.00 energy settlement negotiated by the Attorney General's office has been included in a warrant article to reduce the tax levy. He noted that free cash is roughly double what it was last year, so the FY 17 tax rate could end up being less than FY 16. Arguimbau inquired if the FY 17 Highway Department budget was fully funded; Young and Magi replied that it was. Planning Board Chair Ted Cady said that there are three bylaws: Road Preservation, Scenic Roads and Sound Ordinance. Magi said that there needed to be a definition for "extra legal vehicle". Cady noted that we don't have any industrial development bylaws because we don't have industrial development in town, but we could be faced with heavy trucking in the future. He said that the overweight bylaw involved an extremely difficult process, and that advice was sought from an attorney. Cady pointed out that the Scenic Roads bylaw will allow for the writing of tickets and increase enforcement for violations. 7. Selectboard Reports--There were no reports given. 8. Coordinator Report-- Young said the Town received the FY 17 Chapter 90 grant award letter. Warwick was granted $225,013.00 in Chapter 90 funds for FY 17. Young said that the Town Hall boiler was inspected and the license renewed, but the pressure release valve must be replaced. Public Comment--Lloyd Goodnow of Goodnow Trucking, Inc. and Timber Harvesting in Winchester, NH said that he had initially come before the Board on January 19, 2016 because at that time he had received a cease and desist order from Town Counsel. He explained that he was back because as of today he had received no response from our Town Counsel, adding Town Counsel had not even returned any phone calls. Goodnow said that the Town's refusal to allow him to use the roads now severely impacts his ability to do business, and the problem needs to be fixed. He explained that he was consulting an attorney because there are no objective criteria for the Town's cease and desist order and said that this is a violation of his right to conduct business. Goodnow said that according to the State of Massachusetts, Route 78 is a connector from Route 2 from another state. He advised the Selectboard to consult with Town Counsel and the Town's insurance company and called the Town "out of bounds" at this point. Goodnow told the Board that all six charges against him and his son have been thrown out of court. Cady said that the proposed bylaw exempts those trucking under Chapter 32 for agriculture and such. Goodnow said that by state and federal laws he can run his trucks are 12 feet wide and 85 feet long without an escort, if trucks are over 13 feet wide requires an escort and over 15 feet wide requires a Police escort. He said that according to the Town he cannot bring his skidder into Warwick even if he has a logging job here. Magi said that she will speak with Town Counsel first and then with Police Chief Shoemaker. Goodnow said that he now needs to use the roads and drive through town. Arguimbau announced at 8:02 p.m. that he was leaving the meeting and thereby ended his remote participation. Jon Calcari inquired if Young had spoken to Athol about their ambulance service. Magi said that Athol was not interested but Northfield seems promising. She said that the FY 17 budget includes the assessment from Orange and that the Board will continue to look into other options for FY 18 and beyond. 10. New and Other Business Unanticipated at Time of Meeting Posting --None. IV. Adjournment At 8:07 p.m., Pruyne MOVED to adjourn. Magi SECONDED. Motion CARRIED 2-0-0. Documents consulted at this meeting: *Draft Minutes of the March 28, 2016 Selectboard meeting *Town Coordinator Report * Warrant for May 2, 2016 Special Town Meeting * Draft of Omnibus budget and ATM warrant articles including three proposed by-laws: Town of Warwick Road Preservation Bylaw; Sound Ordinance Bylaw; Scenic Roads (scenic tree and scenic stone wall) Bylaw * Letter from resident Tom Wyatt to Warwick Selectboard, dated April 11, 2016