Ready? I gotta find my audio. >> That's okay. We'll wait for you. >> I got it. Okay. Up until now, can you hear me? Okay. >> Yes. >> Okay. Up until now, the um Bluetooth had
not worked on my Dell computer, but a recent upgrade of their operating system or firmware or whatever fixed it mysteriously. >> Yeah. Always good when an upgrade makes something work and not not the
>> doesn't break it, right? >> Yes. Yes. That is so true. Anyhow, hi everybody. All right. Well, we will uh we'll get started. I actually don't know if Craig is coming tonight. Um but we'll since we
have Cororum, we'll we'll jump right in. Um you'll bear with me just a minute. I was on another meeting until 30 seconds ago, so I just need to get situated. >> Okay.
>> Well, that's why the link was broken. >> Yeah, I was on I was on with um I was on with clients at at Baylor University. >> Oh, >> and I was like, "Whoops, I used the wrong the same meeting link. I have to close out that one before we can get on this one." >> Yeah. Yeah. We would have all crashed
it. Yep. >> All right. So, um, welcome to the February 18th meeting of the MLP board and broadband committee. I am Gail Hunress, MLP manager, facilitating the meeting. This meeting is fully remote.
Participating also remotely, we have MLP board members Jim Hemingway, Graham Septin, and Steve Schmidt. Craig Martin may be joining us uh at a later date. Um, and this meeting is being recorded. And the first order of business is to
approve the previous meeting minutes from January 28th. Do I have a motion? >> So, >> I move we approve the meetings from last month. >> Second. >> Thank you, Jim. >> Thank you. And all in favor, Jim,
>> I, Graham, I. >> And Steve, I >> thank you. And Jim, thank you as always for um keeping records for us Mley crew. >> Um
all right. Um hut report. I saw you. I saw Graham and Stephen there yesterday. >> Mischiefly. Yeah. Messing. H Yeah. Uh Steve, you want to give a hot report?
Well, the hut's still there. And so, uh, I I met Graham at the, uh, monthly hut inspection, and, uh, Graham trumped out a path through the snow, and I grabbed a shovel and cleaned off the, uh, the, uh,
front step. And so, we went in and, found everything seemed to be in good shape. I saw the new uh electric a little electric heater that Graham has installed there. It's just a very simple just it plugs into an outlet it and uh
but it does have a thermostatic control on it and uh we uh cleaned the um the filters on the the 1HVAC unit that's that is running. Graham gave me careful
instructions on on filter cleaning. So, uh, grind now. Certified. >> He's certified. He's certified. Now, um, am I am I hopefully, um, uh, hopeful that, Steve, does this mean that you are
going to take over as the hut hut person after this, after Graham's departure? >> I thought it would be good at least to to know what um what what get an update on on what's happening at the hut. Uh, so am I giving
a vague enough answer? >> You're totally vague. I love it. I love it. So, I'm ready to answer. >> Yep. Yep. You don't. So, yeah. No, no commitment needed. Um, and um we um I do have it on my list of things is is about
around April or May, we'll start talking about a transition plan uh for for Graham. So, Sure. No precious, Dave. Yeah. Yeah. We'll figure it out. and um you know and if it if it feels like too much for you or you just don't
want to do it hopefully by then we'll be through the worst the best of the grant process and they'll just you know this whole router thing and they'll just be more I'll have more availability. We also did uh look at the possibility
of installing any insula more additional insulation inside the hut. And I think I say our conclusion was there's not that much uh space where we could add that add insulation panels particularly uh the ceiling just didn't seem suitable
for it. And the ceiling roof that's the uh the most critical area to be installing insulation. There were some walls where there there was space that could be added. Um so, uh yeah, I don't um yeah, I I I I don't
have enough knowhow about climate control to know if any insulation, like is it really going to make a huge difference to our our heating and cooling? My sense is for such a small space, not much, but I could be wrong. I yeah
>> I I think I can do an R value of assessment of that. Um uh it and um and so I'll put that in my uh uh in the list of things or in it's an interesting calculation. Um I think it can actually
be uh the cost of it and uh the ECAC the energy committee um would probably uh you know totally put the money up if we didn't want to. So insulation's very cheap. >> Yeah. Yeah. And I I I would be you know
if it's if we can say like wow this is really going to save us a lot in the in the long run in increasing electricity bills. Um, I'd be totally I'd be totally for um, you know, going after a project like that. >> There's a theoretical calculation. I think I'm smart. I think I can do it.
It's a spreadsheet sort of a calculation. So, >> okay. All right. I'm just going to make a little little note of that. And And is that is the ECAC um, they're evaluating all town buildings. Is that true?
>> Yes. Yeah. and and they and they're looking for projects. They might even be trying to, you know, use grant money. I I I don't know, but I I Yeah, I I can ask one of the I know people on the EK thing. I'll just ask them.
>> Yeah. Yeah. >> I'll put that on my >> Yeah. And if they don't if they don't want to or they don't don't have the money, I think it would be a worthwhile investment for us. again thinking long term like you know how much you know one of our um you know we have pretty high
electricity bills for our little hut and I I have no idea how much of that is >> uh due to just loss from heating and cooling >> power loss yeah I I'll I'll do the calculation yeah I'll >> get back to you next month
>> all right >> calculation >> all right Um, let's see. Anything else about the hut? >> Um, yeah, it it looked Yeah, it was just bubbling away, though. I I would I would
suggest once again um that that uh if you cancel the phone um the phone check thing >> as just being a nuisance that that has no merit. Um uh because um uh the second time we went in, we went in very
briefly. We just wanted to quickly evaluate. We could have had a phone call by the time we left and they could have turned out the police or whatever, you know. Um uh so um uh so so I I I think
and Sheld agreed or Lee Masters agreed that when they're dashing in and out um having to have the extra thing there's there's already three layers of of um security. Um the door code, the indoor
code to turn off the alarms and the uh and two sets of cameras watching the inside. >> You're right. Yeah. >> Yeah. I'm sorry. I think I think you mentioned that last time and I forgot to write it as a task item, so I didn't do it, but I am capturing it now. >> Yeah. Okay. Very good.
>> I'm sure it's a stressor for the technicians who dash in there with >> three jobs to do in town and they have to also remember a magic word. >> Yeah, but they're probably used to it. >> Yeah. Well,
>> I mean other places >> they don't have to do it in many places and there's a magic different magic word in every place. So, yeah. >> All right. >> Yeah. Yeah. Hi, Craig. >> Anyway, sorry I'm late. It's one of those days. >> All right, let's see. Maintenance and
service report. Uh, super slow month in January. We only had 21 tickets total. Uh, usually we have an average of about 30 35 40. Um so just a very very slow month there. Um >> I have just one question about the
tickets. I uh Okay. I saw that one one of our customers had requested uh and it was a ticket uh so they were responding in some way or other to uh to get a um uh uh uh some enhanced service level um
of speed. Um yeah um somewhere in oh it actually might have been in the February um you know how there was overlap both months. Yeah the you if you look in 7th of February or something like that you'll see that a woman uh name is
against it for getting an enhanced service for uh and they and they yeah they didn't they in this the note on it didn't say they couldn't do it. So I I'm curious what they might have done. I can look into see if there is um any
more more notes in the um uh the um integrity system. >> So you you think it was do you remember the date of that? February. >> I think it was 7th of February. I uh but you you'll you'll see it there's it's clearly said uh in the over on the right
hand column of of what the task was and they closed it. So, you know, they didn't say >> Yeah. >> I don't know. It seemed like they might have done something, but uh Oh, I can't remember whether it was escalated. It might have There was something that made me think that they've done something. >> Okay.
>> Oh, >> all right. I can look up the details of that. A and once again when if you talk to Sheld about it um ask if there is something that for if that person really did have a need for two gig you know
whether there is uh you know what what that that we do have a pathway to that um especially with the uh especially with the upgraded um uh system for doing a better a fancier um
>> uh so which is yeah She'd have the customer would have to have their t um changed out but >> right >> I don't know. Yeah. >> Right. My guess is that it is a slow device slow router and someone calling say hey can I get faster speeds not
because but we >> by >> or how to turn on the parental control or how to connect the printer to to it. Yeah. >> Yeah. Um,
let's see. Financially, our report is uh very healthy. We have a surplus of about 109,000 um right now. And um we have three more months of earnings. I've received nine months of
MLP fees so far. So that's about another 90,000 coming in. Don't get too excited though. 98,000 is coming out the door for the debt service in April. Um but that still means that we will um end end
the year I would guess um somewhere around 80,000 uh surplus. So we're back on track uh for the savings that we want to see there. >> Got more storms coming in. Gail, >> I know. Hold on. There's some artificial wood I can knock on. Okay.
Um, let's see. Um, I submitted the midyear grant report this week um to MBI. Um, so we'll be getting a payment uh a little bit over 10,000 for them for the
things that we've paid for so far. So that includes all of the library installation. It includes a bunch of the well all of the library equipment um including the AV equipment for that little room um that that we we paid for
the extra um ubiquity access point um that Graham got the security for that. Um it wasn't included in the grant that um the cyber secure but I just put it in there as a line item. um they may reject it, but um I'm I'm gonna ask for
forgiveness rather than permission for that. Um and um then um what else does it have? It also has um direct uh direct costs. Um all of these grants have labor costs
included of them. So um for for my role, so there's just extra that's that's coming in for that too. So that'll just go into our general fund. Um and um yeah, those those were the the the
main big expenses. Um as you know, the bulk of that grant is our new routers. Um and once I get approval and we get payment for this first group, um I'll I'll get an exact date for when we need
to actually buy these routers. I was as I was going through this, I was reviewing the grant paperwork and we don't actually have to submit the final report until August 22nd because we signed our grant agreement kind of late in in the year and that's when the kind
of the clock starts. So we signed it in August. So 6 months later is now February, our midyear report and then August is the final. So what I'm hoping is that all funds don't have to be spent by you know as we thought as on June
30th um because that is going to give us some more runway for this router project. So um anyway I will find I will find that out. Um, and
um, speaking of routers, um, uh, they arrived yesterday. Um, I'm sorry that they were delayed. Um, I had got I had the strangest interaction with Amazon like I told you about where they kept saying, um, you know, delayed
delivery, delayed delivery, and then, um, there's no way to, um, just click on something. So, I ended up um uh chatting with Amazon Business Support and they said they're just missing. They're just missing. So, I don't know if that means
stolen or what, but um they they immediately corrected it and sent out new ones. Um so, uh they arrived at at the town hall yesterday. Um, I am going to do my best to pick them up tomorrow and um just deliver them because I'm I'm
going to be uh going away for the weekend on Friday. So, I want to try to get those all to you uh before the weekend. Um, if it's okay with you, I'll just uh come um tomorrow afternoon or Friday morning and leave them on your porches like an Amazon driver.
Um, speaking of stolen packages though, I'm going to be out of town for a week and a half. >> Oh, now everyone knows. >> Oh, no. >> Well, I don't know what you want to do about that. Um, I can give you the code to the garage. You can put it inside or
you or we can just wait or or you can leave it on the front porch. I don't have a strong opinion. >> Yeah, I mean I can hold When are you leaving, Craig? >> Uh, tomorrow morning at 10 o'clock 101. >> All right. Yeah, there's I I can't even pick them up before then. So, why don't I I'll I'll just hold yours. Don't worry about it. I'll hold it.
>> Okay, that's fine. Do that. >> Yeah, let me know when you when you come back. Um and Graham and Jim, I'll I'll deliver it to you. >> Yeah, I will need mine Thursday afternoon, not Friday morning. >> Okay. >> If that's a possibility, >> I'll do my best. >> Okay. Thank you.
>> Yep. So, um just so you know what's coming. So, the TP Decos, I have three going to Jim, three going to Craig, and two going to Graham. The Orbeez again, three to Jim and then two to Craig and
two to Graham. >> That's fine. >> Yep. And then the EOS, two to Jim, zero to Craig because he already has one and two to Graham. >> I have one in California, but that's fine. >> Oh, I misunderstood. I'm sorry. >> Yeah. No, I don't I don't have one. It's
at my my father-in-law's house, so I'm >> Okay. and I' and I I've used it a bunch and I like it, but I can't I can't do a sideby-side comparison. >> All right. Uh would would you like to would you like me to get get you another set? >> Um
sure, why not? >> Okay. Ero for Craig. We'll get two more. and and Gail, anything that we end up not using in the committee's households as routers in the long run, maybe you
can we could give them out and and they could also be paid for by the grant. Um uh because we're going to have a bunch of routers. Um it's probably, you know, and there's not enough routers for the whole town anyhow. Um, so you know, the
extra five, six routers people could, even though they might not all match up the same, their Wi-Fi 7, um, it's probably an improvement for anyone who wants to go from the links. >> Yeah. >> Is that giving you about giving the
demos to customers? >> Yeah, give the demos and give the um and give the extensions the uh the mesh extenders with them uh to anyone who wants to install it themselves. and we can tell them they they might have to give us a report in six months time, but
you know, no pressure. >> Yeah. We want to make sure that what we're doing is not perceived as some sort of back dealing. >> Yeah. Yeah. What what I was thinking is that is that after we're done testing these and um you know the committee has
has chosen the router that they want to use kind of longer term that we take the remainder of them and um offer them in a just probably a lottery system. Hey, if you want this let us know by this date and we will randomly choose um you know
the people to get them. Um, we're still within the bounds, I believe, of the of the grant because we are distributing this to uh people on our network, right? We bought the equipment. It is going out there. It may not be the, you know, the ones that everybody's getting. Um, and
oh, and also I want to I want to reserve a couple of them to um put at the uh Shoots Athletic Club. >> Good. Yeah, I was going to suggest that. >> Yes. >> Good. Oh, yeah. I'd already forgotten that one. Yeah. >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Just, you know, it's
it's a it's a public service. It's a public gathering place. It's one of the only other places in town that we're not like covering. I realize it is a well, is it is it a nonprofit? >> It is a nonprofit. Yes. It's not It's
not a tax deductible, but >> but it's Yeah, it's one of those. Yeah. No. Um Yeah. Yeah. And and speaking of stuff to buy uh and and those places to cover, um uh the the uh I realized as I
once again tried to um get the uh the AP talking to the library system remotely and you know I had it working at one point but it's not working now. But what I realized is the town hall really should get a a an upgrade and a ubiquity
um uh system in the town hall would probably be a good one. Um from the point of view of uh a a separate ubiquity system um I I also realized that it would be nice to segregate
our public Wi-Fi from the library because as you know Gail um uh Maryanne now has her old IT uh administrator working remotely from the u from the Cape Cod where it's perfect for him. you
know, he's an IT administrator in one of the part-time in one of the towns there. Uh he can do the library stuff as well without, you know, if they actually have to have something activated, you know, with patching then someone like me gets called in. But uh but I'm anyhow so um
it it's it would be better not to have us administering the town halls um or in even owning the sorry the library system because they have their own sets of rules and stuff about what can be communicated where and how it goes. And
um it's it's it's only a couple hundred bucks to get a ubiquity router in the in the town hall and then that can have its own um and then yeah it's uncomplicated. The public Wi-Fi at the town hall and
the the SSIDs can be exactly the same name and have exactly the same access rules but they don't have to be connected via the um you know the cloud. So that's my suggestion. All right. So, you're suggesting uh do the the town
hall runs their own separate network. The library does that. All the settings are the same, but they're really separate things. >> Yes. Yeah. Yeah. And and and the benefit of that also is then the library can put their credit card, their credit card on on the account and not have, you know,
it's like a little weird for uh uh to get to get some of the services that we get with the with with the ubiquity thing. There has to be a credit card number in there. Even though it's not being built for anything, the AI answers work. You can talk to their AI chatbot
if you've got a credit card in there without paying 1,500 bucks for an actual person to uh do anything. So, um and and the wonderful thing uh that um with uh with Maryanne being able to get her old IT administrator back in there because
he can do it remotely. So, it's got, you know, he he's um like you, he has access, but he has access as an administrator. Um uh you would probably end up being the owner of the ubiquity in the town hall. So, >> yeah, I think yeah, I like I like the
idea. I like the thought process here of actually separating them out because we don't want to start intermingling town hall with Yes. >> library. I like that. I think the the the challenge is part of a larger conversation for the town hall that um they are lacking any IT support
whatsoever, right? And so um yeah, that's um something I'll need to talk to Haley about is like how do you want to do this part? Um >> yeah. >> Yeah. So yeah, something something to be figured.
>> Yeah. And they have some complexities as well. They've got like the police network and they've got you know our network or the you know the the shell network. So there's there's moving parts there that you know I have no idea about. >> Yeah. Yeah. The police actually have their own completely separate service
>> because because of security they they have to run they they are not intermingled with the uh with the town hall at all. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. No. >> Let's see. Um, all right. Any other thoughts or needs on the router? Uh, Craig, I'm going to
get you an arrow. Jim and Graham, I'm going to pick up and deliver to you tomorrow night >> or hopefully in the afternoon. Um, >> it's got to be, in my case, afternoon. I I could come over and pick them up from you if that's inconvenient.
>> No, I I can do them I can do them in the afternoon. Let's say I have an appointment in Hatfield around 3 and so I'd be back before 4. >> That would be good. >> Okay. All right. I'll do my best to get there before 4 and I'll I'll call you if it's after 4.
>> Okay. Thank you. >> Um so anything else on routers for now? Okay. Um, I was looking through some of our documentation and I realize it's been a a long time since we've done any kind of
um evaluation of just asking um, you know, how is how is how is this working from a structural perspective? Um, I want to get feedback from you about my role and what I'm
doing. Um, uh, our just our meeting structure, just all the things that is good to check in with people in an organization about. Um, so I'm going to make a short survey if it's okay and have you all complete it sometime over the next couple of
weeks. Um and um you know also I think as an organization just um a good thing to do to make sure that there's evaluation criteria for um people who well just say it in my
role right an MLP manager you need to know and have records of what's what's good bad and ugly so that if anything happens um you show that you're doing that due diligence. So, um, we did this back in I want to say 2024,
I think. Um, and it we didn't do it in 2025. So, um, I'll get that I'll get that survey going and, um, uh, put it in our ongoing documentation for posterity. So, you know, just it's something that
that's, I think, a good idea to do, uh, to do every year. >> Very good. That is actually everything on my list for tonight. Does anybody have any other topics?
>> No, nothing. H >> we >> Steve, >> one thought last month we had a uh person join us who had some potential interest in uh being on the board. Have
you had any further contact with that person? Um, uh, I ran into him, um, about a week later at the trivia night at the Shoesbury Athletic Club and plugged it
again. Um, he didn't seem too interested and I haven't I haven't heard back, so I don't I don't think so. >> Okay. >> Yeah. I mean, I know he's um he's already on the fire department, which is a huge time commitment.
Okay. And do we know when uh nomination papers uh what the schedule for that is for the uh upcoming election?
>> I do not know the exact date. Um >> March. It just comes to mind that it's in March that you do that because I remember trumping around in snow. So, >> all right. I'm going to ask the town clerk about those nomination papers and
Craig, I'll copy you in on that. >> Sure. >> Um because this is you're you're the person it affects. >> Okay. or anybody else that is interested, but I just Sure. Of course. Of course.
>> Anybody who's interested? Well, they're lining up out the door. >> Yes. >> All right. Anything else? Oh, I did. Um I noticed on the um it's unrelated to us or indirect uh the cell
tower that overlooks the uh the lake. Um it has a whole new uh even after they added T-Mobile service. Um something else has been added now because there's a whole set of new um three um
>> big transmitter receiver things. Yeah. Yeah. antenna stuff. So, um uh so, uh I I I looked in there and took a took another photo because um because I'd seen a bunch of Verizon trucks going in and out and uh but but they had the
T-Mobile stuff going >> even before they put up the new set of stuff. So, maybe Verizon is finally going to uh transmit there. But there was no new um you can tell who's on the thing because uh because they each get
their own power meter. Um and at the moment >> uh at the moment T-Mobile and AT&T are the only power meters there. It's owned by a third party who doesn't want to pay anyone's electricity. um or they want
to, you know, they want their customers to tell, you know, to show up as their um um u you know, as renters to pay their own electricity. So So anyhow, um something's happening. Yeah.
>> All right. Right. Well, I I uh stumbled on a Next Door post from recently of someone saying um does anybody have any good recommendations for cell service in Shootsbury because Verizon's is terrible. >> So, >> yeah. >> Yeah.
>> True that. >> And I'm happy that um some people have T-Mobile and they're very happy with it, but they are not switching to it as their primary apparently. Right. >> Yeah. >> So, that's good.
Well, right for their broadband, you mean? Yeah. >> Yeah. Well, I mean that was my worry is that is it >> I remember that >> must satellites. Starink >> Starink Starink. >> I'm less worried about him at the moment, although eventually that could
be a concern. Yeah, but the the economics of putting huts in the sky, um, it's got to be it it can't compete with a hut on the ground in town. >> Yeah. >> Well, at least there's less rodents though with the space ones.
>> Yeah. No, >> less rodent damage. >> Yeah. Yeah, that's true. Yeah. Yeah. Safer from mice. Yeah. >> All right, guys. So, thank you so much and um uh yeah, I will be in touch with
routers and other information. >> Make a motion to adjurnn. >> Second. >> I All in favor. >> Voting for dinner time. >> Sounds great. All right. Byebye. All
right. Bye. Bye. Bye.