Southwick-Whip City Fiber is making his last land to the city’s residents tonight, from 6:30 pm, to support an article on the mandate for the next meeting of the city, which will ask the voters to support a loans authorization to create a municipal property fiber optical network.
“This meeting presents a significant opportunity for Southwick residents to understand how a city -owned fiber network could improve connectivity to its entire community,” said Tom Flaherty, WG & E and the General Director of Fiber of the City of Whip. “We encourage all residents interested in attending and asking their questions.”
This session aims to educate Southwick community members on how Whip City Fiber can support Southwick with a premium high -speed Internet service, according to a meeting on the meeting.
At the city meeting next Tuesday, May 20, residents will be asked to vote or download in Article 9, who, if approved, would give the city green to loan up to $ 16 million for five years to create fiber -optic networks.
The city has been taking measures for authorization to be built in recent years with two affirmative votes by residents to create a municipal light plant, which the state required to build the network.
Once the MLP was approved, the Select Council established a high -speed Internet Committee to prepare the cost of the project.
When the Committee began examining the number of dollars in the network, they considered going to the city meeting for five consecutive years to apply for a loan authorization of about $ 5 million.
However, given the city’s experience with phase II of financing of the sewerage project, in which the city meeting voted for a loans authorization after passing $ 600,000 for engineering and system design, the Committee decided to look for the entire amount to build the network.
The most vocal supporter of network construction was the member of the Select Council Douglas Moglin, who chaired the Committee.
Since the start of discussions on creation, Moglin has been highlighted if the 50% participation rate is reached – it is registered with the service – the receipts will generate sufficient income to pay the loan.
To do this, the business model has subscribers that pay $ 89 per month for the service. If the network reaches a 50%rate or participation, which would be 1,843 connections, the annual income would be $ 1,968 million.
This would cover the annual expenses of $ 1.934 million and the network would work at a surplus of about $ 34,000 a year.
The full cost of the network is estimated at $ 18 million, but the city has already allocated $ 900,000 to the REScat American rescue plan, received $ 250,000 from a state subsidy and had a $ 3 million authorization approved at the city meeting by 2023.
The Whip City fiber cable is already playing Southwick in several areas, including Tanner Road and Sunnyside Drive, and there is a latent but latent fiber optical line that runs through the length of the Southwick railway path.
Representatives of the city of Whip said those areas where the cable touches the Southwick houses will be able to sign up for the Internet service almost immediately if the article passes.
The fiber of the city and the city held an informative meeting in March which was attended by more than 130 residents. After the representatives of the WG & E subsidiary finished their presentation, almost all the people in the City Council’s auditorium raised their hands when asked if they would support the loan authorization.
For those who are not available to attend the meeting, it will be available online.
To join -Zoom meeting sign in https://southwickma.zoom.us/j/82678586933?pwd=bkuzcmetak1ty7ilgqrgwaj5wusc72.1
The meeting identifier is 826 7858 6933, the password is 671280,
To find your local number, visit https://southwickma.zoom.us/u/KCF0RCXAW7