Town of Wendell, Massachusetts

Unofficial for Shutesbury and Leverett

Meeting opened at: 7:15 p.m. at Shutesbury Town Hall

Members Present: David Scott and Robbie Leppzer from Wendell. Weezie (Marie Louise) Houle, Aaron Goldman, and Frank Citino from Shutesbury and (Rob Brooks) from Leverett.

Subjects discussed:

1. Approve Agenda - not officially as there was no quorum, though there were 11 people at the meeting, 4 members and 7 guests. Agenda numbers 7, 8, and 9 were added to the agenda.
2. Approve Minutes - Did not approve September minutes - No quorum for Shutesbury and Leverett tonight - September 9 Minutes approved for and by Wendell committee members for their committee.
3. Outreach - Aron explained the need for written support from all town committees. Frank reported our progress to the Shutesbury All Boards Meeting that took place on Sept. 26.
4. Secretarial duties - Weezie will take minutes, and bring copes of agendas and minutes to meetings.
5. Pioneer Valley Connect - PVC Broadband Forum dates are Nov. 1 and Dec. 13 from 7 to 9 p.m. - go to pionervalleyconnect.org for location information.
6. Today's To do list:
   1. Aron to get lawyer info to Weezie who will contact lawyer who may help arrange for a Verizon and/or Comcast rep to attend one of our meetings.
   2. Aron will forward a master endorsement letter and other information for town committees. Weezie will go to the Shutesbury's next All Boards Committee Meeting to seek endorsements.
   3. Robbie Letzer to follow up with Robbie Heller to get a key for the Wendell town hall for our next meeting.
   5. Weezie will bring agendas and minutes each meeting.
   6. OLD to do list:
      1. Dan will write letter to cable companies in area. Aron to dig a template up for him.
      2. Dan will contact Virginia town to find out more.
      3. Steve will find vendors that claim they have wireless that works and contact David Hunt.
      4. Weezie will contact said vendors to see if they would provide equipment & set them up for testing.
      5. Aron will propose to PVC a coordinated effort (Crocker review technical specs & testing results, full range of wireless solutions, we help in technical way, vendors lend equipment, locals to do testing)
7. Wendell Select board report- First year-end report to the Select Board was given by Lisa as she was exiting as Chair. It consisted primarily of an education for the board and a summation of the Broadband committee's prior year activities.
8. Shelburne Falls Broadband Report - visitor Craig Manning, a member of the Shelburne Falls Cable Advisory Committee, told us about the struggles that the residents of Shelburne Falls are having with broadband access, which is similar to ours. There is Verizon and Comcast in downtown but not in outlying areas. They are getting ready to renew their 10 year contract with Comcast and are hoping to negotiate some broadband into it.
9. New Members - 3 Shutesbury residents, Howell Lee, Glenn Cherrits, and Peter Schilling, who attended the meeting, volunteered to join our committee. Aron will recommend them to the Select Board for installation.
10. Other business
11. Next meeting: Tues, Nov. 14th, Wendell Town Hall, 7 p.m.

Special Occurrences:

Walk-In Guests: Craig Manning from Shelburne Falls, Howell Lee, Howard Shpetner, Glenn Cherrits, Peter Schilling, and Greg Coulton from Shutesbury.

Meeting dissolved at 8:45 p.m.

Meeting recorded by: Weezie Houle