In order to join WiredWest, 46 towns unserved or underserved by broadband are being asked to vote on their participation at 2010 town meetings. Over the past month, all towns addressing the issue have passed the article at town meetings – and The Egremont Selectboard has also chosen to join. There are 13 more town meetings that will also be voting over the next month. For status of your town, please see the map of participating towns.
Representatives from towns that opt to participate will form the initial governing board of WiredWest. Once all towns have had the opportunity to vote, the first meeting of the organization will be convened and pressing issues of governance and inter-municipal agreements will be addressed. We anticipate that meeting will occur at the end of June.
WiredWest Testifies to Regionalization Advisory Commission
On May 4th, the Chair of the WiredWest Steering Committee had the opportunity to testify to the State’s Regionalization Advisory Commission (RAC), which is tasked with studying a range of opportunities, benefits and challenges of regionalizing local government services.
Please see our written statement here, which summarizes the WiredWest organization and efforts to date. We hope the RAC initiative serves to both streamline efforts and leverage state resources to benefit critical regional projects like WiredWest.
Upcoming Town Information Sessions and Town Meetings
There are two upcoming information sessions:
Wendell: Mon. May 24th, 7pm @ Wendell Library
New Salem: Wed. May 26th, 7pm @ Town Hall
Remember anyone is welcome to attend the info sessions, whether it’s in your town or not.
Also – please be sure to attend and support the WiredWest article at your annual town meeting. The following meetings are coming up over the next month:
May 18th: Otis, New Ashford
May 19th: Hinsdale
May 25th: Charlemont
June 1st: Wendell
June 5th: Peru
June 7th: Huntington, New Salem (Part 1)
June 8th: Lanesboro, New Salem (Part 2)
June 18th: Florida
June 21st: New Marlborough, Windsor
About WiredWest
WiredWest’s mission is to build and operate a universal, open-access, fiber-to-the-home network that is financially self-sustaining and municipally-owned, We believe this type of network would fundamentally improve the prospects for our communities, ensuring they remain diverse, vibrant and prosperous today, tomorrow, and for the foreseeable future. To find out more about the WiredWest project, please see About Us, FAQ, and Project Overview.
How You Can Help
There are a number of ways you can help the WiredWest initiative to succeed, starting with spreading the word! Check here for specific ways you can support the project