[Ww-snww-regional-list] Wired West Email Announcement
Tom Wyatt
tom at tomwyattphoto.com
Wed Mar 4 09:58:12 EST 2015
Thanks Robbie, we may "steal" some of your language. Believe me, in spite of
our not being at the meeting last Friday, the Warwick Broadband Committee is
gearing up for our annual town meeting and getting a high take rate via the
sign-up procedure. However, there is considerable concern in town about
raising taxes, so the Committee needs to strike a balance between
encouraging support for the project and providing info, answering questions
etc. Toward that end, we are hosting a meeting next Tuesday, March 10th 6pm,
at the Warwick Town Hall. The meeting will focus on the financing of the
fiber-to-the home project with Jim Drawe from Wired West and Joe Markarian
from the FRCOG making presentations. It will be a joint Selectboard &
Finance Committee but all town residents are encouraged to come. The
committee is meeting frequently and DOES want to share ideas & strategies
with our other North Quabbin WW towns.
Best,
Tom Wyatt
Chair, Warwick Broadband Committee
tom at tomwyattphoto.com
978-544-3911
-----Original Message-----
From: Robbie Leppzer [mailto:robbie at turningtide.com]
Sent: Tuesday, March 03, 2015 7:43 PM
To: Wyatt Tom; sseago at gmail.com; thoughtfuldog at gmail.com;
coordinator at town.warwick.ma.us; William.Foote at peoples.com
Subject: Wired West Email Announcement
Hi Tom, Scott, John, David and Bill,
Does Warwick have an email list?
If so, you are welcome to copy and paste or revise any of my
text that I sent to our Wendell email list tonight regarding signing up for
Wired West.
We want to ensure a high take-rate from our neighboring towns,
so that we can present ourselves to Wired West and MBI as a regional model
(Wendell, Warwick, New Salem and Shutesbury) to get built out first!
Best,
Robbie Leppzer
Robbie Leppzer
Chair, Wendell Broadband Committee
(978) 544-8313
robbie at turningtide.com
------------------
(Email to Wendell Townsfolk List - Revised) Sent 3/3/15
Sign-Up Info For Wired West Broadband for Wendell
Hi All,
After many years of organizing to bring high-speed fiber-optic
broadband internet to Wendell and over 30 other towns in western
Massachusetts that currently have no broadband access, I'm pleased to
announce that WiredWest, the non-profit municipal cooperative that has
spearheaded this effort, has now launched a customer sign-up campaign for
the actual service.
In order to qualify Wendell to be part of this broadband
network, a minimum of 40% of our households must sign up for the service by
this spring by paying a $49 deposit (which will be counted towards the first
month's service).
All town residents will be receiving a brochure with more
details about the WiredWest community broadband project, a printed sign-up
form with a return envelope, along with a letter from the Wendell
Selectboard by next week.
You can sign up at:
https://register.wiredwest.net/campaigns/become-a-fiber-town#
(To pay securely on-line you will be directed to pay via Amazon).
You can also send in the printed sign-up form with a check for
$49, payable to Wired West to:
WiredWest
Old Courthouse
99 Main Street
Northampton, MA 01060
WiredWest will be offering several options, including several
internet speeds (25 Mbps, 100 Mbps and 1GB - all symmetrical - same speed
download and uploads with no bandwidth caps), phone service, and television
options.
The good news is that the Wired West customer registration
website has only been up for two days - with minimal publicity, and Wendell
is already at 18% sign up (towards the minimum goal of 40%), far surpassing
all other Wired West towns!
However, if Wendell, along with our neighboring towns of
Shutesbury, New Salem and Warwick achieve an even higher sign-up rate, say
60% or above, we will stand a chance at getting our towns built out first in
the multi-year, multi-town construction process.
So, please, I urge everyone to sign up as soon as possible!
If you have difficulty accessing the Wired West website from
home, you will be able to access it at the library. In addition, we will be
hosting upcoming community forums and community sign-up sessions throughout
March and into the spring.
At this Saturday evening's Wendell Full Moon Coffeehouse
featuring Trailer Park, we will have computers available for people to sign
up at the town hall from 7:30pm on.
This WiredWest sign up campaign is part of a multi-stage process
to bring high-speed internet to Wendell and over 30 other towns in western
Massachusetts.
After qualifying as a "fiber town," by reaching a minimum of 40%
sign-ups, Wendell and all other "fiber towns" in WiredWest will need to pass
a 2/3 vote at town meetings this spring to authorize the issuances of bonds.
More information on this will follow in the coming weeks. The Baker
administration recently confirmed its support for the $40-million dollar
initiative passed last year by the Massachusetts Legislature, which began
under the Patrick administration, to provide partial funding for this
community-based broadband project for our region.
On a personal note, it's quite gratifying to see our collective
efforts finally bearing fruit.
I remember driving down to Springfield in December 2006 for a
community forum with then Governor-elect Patrick. Several of us from
Wendell spoke up about the need for high-speed internet for Wendell and
other towns in western Mass. without broadband. We were then approached by
several Patrick's staff who asked us to follow up with a report and
recommendations for how to implement broadband in our region.
After years of the Wendell Broadband Committee meeting with the
Leverett and Shutesbury broadband committees, we all realized that we could
have more affect if we band together with broadband committees across the
region and that effort eventually led to Wired West, which Wendell is a
member town.
We need volunteers to help with our outreach efforts. Please
contact me if you can help.
Best,
Robbie Leppzer
Chair, Wendell Broadband Committee
(978) 544-8313
robbie at turningtide.com
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