welcome you all and we'll start with the Pledge of [Music] [Music] Allegiance thank you all for for joining us tonight I know it's been a few month mons and happy New Year and welcome everybody hope everybody got through the
holidays unscathed and um you know I I wanted to call the meeting because obviously with the end of the year and and everybody's schedules we really didn't have a chance to get together and meet but I know John has been busy I've been in touch with him throughout the whole process but I I thought it was
good that we get together and talk about uh some initiatives for 2025 and kind of recap you know 2024 a little bit and um just kind of take it from there so um first we have to review and approve the
minutes from the September 11th meeting I don't know if you've all had a copy of it or had a chance to review it um if you'd like to approve it that would be great any motion to approve yes
second all in favor okay if you could clip on your [Music] microphon feel like I'm at a press conference okay we'll we'll move on to um and the agenda is really not uh elaborate but I think it's important for
us to kind of go through things um number three is a director's report and discussion so John do you want to take that yep so I'm going to skip over the first two cuz that's also on the agenda so um let's see so David has started um
a spotlight series for the public Channel and it what it does is it highlights uh businesses in town and I told him and he's he's right on on it um we we're not making commercials for these businesses it's more like why are you in Westport and different things
about westpa we say the play we see where they're working and all of that but it's definitely not a commercial cuz that's not what we do but it's it's a pretty good thing he did two more today and he's going to start working on that so um that's coming down the pipe um I'm
working with a woman I don't know if you folks know Lisa Costa she's a council and aging board member I think she's new to she may be new to actually I think she replaced Irene probably um she has a um volunteer program called The Stroke
buddies and she's building that out and um I'm going to be doing a lot of different stories with her she's um very creative person she's ambitious she um she's really Community involved so I'm glad I got to meet her I didn't know
her um up until a month or so ago so we've had a few meetings and looks like we're going to stop be doing that and both David and Valerie can help us on that once um once we start nailing things down so that stroke budies but it's also of the other things that um she's really
into all right good marene show up again she is um kind of spearheading a Town's uh celebration of the 250th signing of the Declaration of Independence next year so
um she's just getting things moving and uh we made a commercial for her and she wants to start getting the public noticed about hey this is what's going to be going on and how would we want to do it and all of that she's going to be working with the select board in Junction with them and they may even
come up with some subcommittee or something just to just to get a volunteer thing going so we'll be there to promote that as well and um that'll the 250th would be next year yeah 26 next year um another thing that we're
working on is uh myself Carol freedus from the Veterans office and eighth grade teacher John Bernier uh John bernier's class are making um they're interviewing veterans and what they're going to their final thing they want to
do is the kids are going to write they interviewing veterans and the kids are going to write up stories and all the veterans and they're going to actually make a book on it nice they called um they called us in and the kids are now filming this on um they're filming it in
the TV studio so we're also getting them on video soort of like an archive of of these veterans that we'll always have so I'm working with uh eighth graders and um we did three last week we're doing a couple more tomorrow and they they have
about 15 to 20 that they're planing on interviewing and it's all Westport veterans too so it'll be something just like I said just to Archive so that's coming down um the was slow uh around here but because of the holidays I noticed a lot of people once
Thanksgiving comes I heard so many times uh yeah I'll talk to you after the holidays like they mail in mid November now so so it was slow on the public side um in December it was very slow but we're picking up now um and sports
things we we've live streamed 18 basketball games this season um and is a game tonight for the boys that we're at at the same time right now and um then it's going to be tournament time and there should be a couple of home games there I'm thinking so we did that I went
to a game I was proud of kind of proud of our our kids because we went to a game at case last week and they had nothing you know there was there was no cam could camera couldn't be found and it it just like it just that kind of made me proud that we can offer this where you know a bigger town I don't
think they a comp I think their bigger Town doesn't have that so coverage of the games I think are so very important and you might not think it now but years from now they'll look back on it and be glad that at least it's documented and
archived yep do you have any students that are interested in commentating or doing a play byplay so I do have one student he's been commentating for three years now he's a senior so I'm losing him um he doesn't do every game he does
last year he did almost every game this year he hasn't been doing much I guess he's got a lot going on but um I do lose him this year so I'll be recruiting great experience recruiting yeah yeah
um so valer if you want to say something about um your side of things I didn't keeping up with the meetings um like it was slow over the holidays too but uh um we've added the
uh offshore wind um doing that committee and they have a meeting February coming up and uh the opioid those are two new things that we record
so same same uh meetings on uh internet on on YouTube and on TV you still7 in December that's a slow oh really I don't keep track like that yeah I just know this a lot I had three meetings last
night must be a blur right so long as the equipment's still working so that's the main thing yeah yeah have the new um new microphones and new
uh screen displays in the town hall so that's uh good for presentations the select board has a presentation every every time and last night we had the finance with the school committee presentation so that's that's working
out y any questions you guys have any questions okay yep so that's my report your equipment needs everything is good um bought some new stuff but other than
the stuff that's listed on theenda I'm going to stop buying a couple more cameras because um so I don't teach my class I don't teach my class this year and those kids have destroyed some
cameras three-year-old cameras are you know they're failing and we had you know so I'm going I'm going to upgrade the camera situation thing is what they do is they when they go to charge them they'll put the Power into like the headphone jack or they'll force it into something else so it's it's
giving power where power shouldn't go and I think it shortened things out so right we should have the new cameras and give them yeah yep yeah I think I think that makes sense yeah who's over seeing the classes
um there one class right now it's um he's kind of a building sub is uh Jared Russell Drama teacher building sub you may want to have like a sit down with him and kind of just or Draw up
some standard operating procedures you know might help you know this is how you turn the camera on this is how you know maybe a little bit of training might be might be in order um okay um Carrie you had submitted
something to to the board and I did maybe just for the public cerification maybe just go through it so sure um it's been slow over the holidays but uh we've been working Valerie too uh expanding the town's Presence by developing social
media platforms and exploring the ways to engage in the community um alongside valer we've been setting up the studio in the other room to host podcasts and other digital uh content I have begun establishing Facebook and Instagram accounts for the
town a little bit of trouble but I think that it'll work out um looking ahead right now anyway uh town meeting is very important and there's always so many questions so I'm going to go through each warrant article separately and see
who asks what and hopefully get the right person in to give those answers right and just from there see where it goes yeah I mean I I think it's um work in progress right so uh have those those sites have already
launched then they're live but I haven't interacted with anything yet I haven't set up the page yet yeah okay okay so it'll be interesting to see once people start following it like some numbers and
how many people are engaged right now follow me so it' be nice to get them off of my stuff I got what you're saying yeah yeah but that that's I think important that that you know that um you know we we can
publicize it as much as possible get people involved and engaged in it and you know the numbers will will grow I I'm hoping Snapchat will bring in the younger crowd yep we'll see y great idea okay thank you
um so we got the director's report done so uh number four is Spectrum cable TV in the high school and I know there's a price tag Associated a Google friends at Spectrum so um at the last meeting you
told me to I was telling you how they don't get back to me and put in a ticket they did put in a ticket and they go back to me so some good advice yeah um progress yeah yeah but you're not going to like what they said
so um my goal is I need to get cable TV into the building from the road into the building you know if I want to monitor channels I need to do that we have it at the old building which is vacant now I just need them to transfer here talking
about that for years yep so I finally got to the point where Yep this is going to happen and he sends me a quote and they wanted a installation charge I think was 100 bucks which is fine but they wanted $120 a month a recurring
monthly charge to have this and and we get three or four whatever it is free boxes and um so I pushed it from there and of course every Avenue it it's a circle I originally I I always end up
going back to the guy I first spoke to who didn't who gave me this it it just goes right around I present to them that you know we supposed to get free cable it's CT two courtesy or maybe three courtesy boxes and and it's just dead right now it's just dead I'm just running in circles so um at the last
meeting too Steve had said maybe the water selectman will get involved so I think it's that time where I'm going to write them and explain um explain this to them and maybe they can write a letter to them because we shouldn't have to pay that right yeah we get it free at the Town
Hall so so I think what might you might want to try this I don't know if it'll work but um maybe CE seeing the government rep uh John Mayor I think his name was right and get him involved in
it because if it's written into the into the license which it is um then they this other department and I get the way they work because I've had to deal with with Comcast and any big Corporation
they're silos right they don't one department does not talk to the other department different states yeah yeah um talk to you know you probably spoke to some rep somewhere you know elsewhere from
corporate headquarters but um I think it's a matter of of maybe getting him involved in it and if we need to write a letter or mhm but yeah it's at that point because Eran I just said it's not it's
not working this way right yeah yeah that's John Mir though has a history of avoiding yep yeah so you I can try that Avenue but it's going to come back to this board or asking select board to
write that letter right sure do we lose Steve because of his new do we lose Steve wette from this board temporary yes permanently or or is because I I know he was invited but someone new will get
appointed okay okay okay okay so that's where that stands with um with Spectrum Charter yeah that's that's kind of a big one um and really should be addressed
MH without those those charges cuz they do offer courtesy accounts and sometimes they're discounted but they're trying charging you the full boat for it which is ridiculous for basic y yeah yeah you have to monitor the
channels have to yeah yeah it's okay right that's it for four you guys have any questions for John on this or maybe some words of advice he was supposed to come for some
other stuff too we have trouble getting them down for wasn't it some other issues oh we don't exist to him anymore yeah yeah I don't know maybe it's a matter of going to their website and pulling one of the vice presidents of
government relations maybe his boss and and him sometimes if you tie in a couple people and say listen we're sitting with a new cable license we have a building that is not getting service now regarding the the
courtesy accounts you don't even have to say it's it's a brand new building I mean I could see the the $100 installation charge but the license promises courtesy accounts there
so there got to be a way to twist their arm a little bit that's just my New Yorker coming out of me because sometimes I you know I mean it's you got to fight for everything these days y um okay it's the
right thing it's right in the contract yeah absolutely yeah I'm not asking for something that yeah um next item is fiber quote for the high school so just to refresh everyone's
memory in the new building um there is fiber in the TV studio there's fiber in the gymnasium the library Library uh in the auditorium and on the baseball field this this fiber inputs
out there and I can receive them in the um TV studio problem is nothing's been terminated and nothing's been labeled so if you go on my TV studio and pull the drop ceiling panel down you're just going to see a bunch of fiber this has been something since day
one I've told every member of the build School building committee multiple times they've been in that room they've seen it um everyone in town that needs to know about it has seen it um so I'm tired of waiting for them I'll pay for it to get done because if not it won't
ever get done however um reached out to ralco I'm calling a few and I'll get to that started with ralco electrics out of New Bedford they sub to clear sound out of New Bedford and um they gave me a quote of
5,866 oers is coming tomorrow so I'll have a second quote tomorrow to see what they say it's something we shouldn't have to pay for and I've reached out to the school building committee to see if they can cover this cost silence what's it supposed to do so I
can plug a camera in on the anywhere that has a fiber port on the wall and it shoots back to the TV St and I can see it coming into my switcher we have one that works just trial and error I found one clear very clear picture
um I mean basketball season's over I wanted it for the start of the season so I could have multiple cameras coming in so it only comes from where now which one um the one that works is in the uh gymnasium up on a track but there's no difference between that and what I do
now because it's it's just one camera that works so so somebody would have to go through and like label them the funny you test them from one point to the other Trace them out basically and it should have been labeled as part of the building project is it difficult
couldn't like do that no it's very hard because for I'll tell you in a second um they left the labels there like inside the box it's unlabeled so the nend just think of the n as a wire with no a plug with no plug attached okay okay there's no n on it so
by terminate that means you got to put the fitting on the end that it works for that takes a special tool five is like Po uncooked pasta it breaks easily so that's I can do audio I can terminate audio but I'm not going to touch fiber okay that's something that I don't know how to do and it's let a pro do that
yeah Al so it's got It's got no end to it it's just it's just wrapped around the thing so hopefully oakers can beat this um do you folks think I should when do when do I stop trying to rely on the building
committee it sorry who installed it and left the labels there um gee I don't I forget the vendor's name probably I don't want to say it in case I'm wrong but um they've been made aware of it
and do you want some help on the phone with these people I get yeah I mean I'm not yeah I'm not going to say no um I think it's but they've had a lot of problems with that that building there's still problems that ain't aren't fix so
we're so low on on the I don't think the building committee will be helpful I think school committee would be more helpful because they're current on current stuff and CH they've all been made they've all been made aware the school building committee the school committee no they they never looked that
then let me give it a shot yeah I'll I'll exchange names and I'll get the uh all right I'll get the you want me to so this so this school was um this was during Co when we couldn't get in the building so a lot of things we couldn't check on them we weren't allowed in the
building when this when all this was going on there was I see not only me I hear the complaints other parts of the building that should have been this way should have been that way but we couldn't get in the building I mean someone should have signed off on the
building project right yeah I don't know if it's been completely signed off it's been four years um there was a school building committee meeting maybe four months ago and they were they had a punch list of things that hadn't been done and it
sounded like there's still money to do all of this but when I requested I didn't get any answer oh pay for it with the cable if if I have to and it'll get done yes I I will do that but yeah like I mean if again I want to
hear back to one of these things that should have been done and addressed I'd hate to take cable Monies if you didn't if we don't have to especially if there's still building monies left over yep um I don't know I mean what do you
think do you think the you know maybe school committee can somehow push whoever the contractors were I I would get pictures also that would be helpful that's have some on my phone right now yeah yeah because that that's that would help but I can
definitely look into it um I think it school committee School building committee being two separate kind of identities is where it gets a little um tricky obviously we have a we have a school committee member that is on the school building committee um so I can
try that Avenue to see uh to see if that helps um but yes I do know that there's things that were never completed and kind of like John says it's so long ago now that it seems to be like oh our job's done here um um and it's not we're
left with you know either funding it ourselves or you know finding a solution for it right um but it sounds like it's something that's needed and uh would definitely be used with um everything that we have going on there so thank you yeah I mean just yeah I appreciate that I mean just to be able
to go live from the various locations in the high school that I think is critical um it is infrastructure that if there is monies left over in the in the building project that that should be the
First Avenue for getting it done and they keep saying this money is money available is there is I think there there there should be and $5,000 you know maybe on the high side I
don't know how many locations you're going to want to do but yeah I thought it was a I thought it was a crazy amount for tips yeah it's it's time and and and energy you know everyone everyone charges for travel now and there minimum
four hours travel everything is nickel and D you yeah of course of course um but yeah let's let's not um let that one go so easy yeah maybe at the next meeting we can I mean just so you all know this isn't something I'm just I've
been trying for years and I pointed this out for years I've made building Comm media aware and everyone aware and they just look at it so I Alex maybe two years ago remember he yep go to a go to a building committee meeting thing is they don't
have them I think they had one last year yeah do we do we know who's on the building committee yeah I you have list yeah yeah I wrote the chair and you didn't write me back yeah because ultimately the
students are losing out and we paid for this and we're notzing yeah so absolutely that's the you're right y yeah and let me know if you need me or anybody from the board to get involved in that
okay um so that's the bulk of the meeting of our board meeting um we have a next meeting date which we can kind of float again and just you know maybe when you have something to report or you I can touch base and maybe set a meeting
date for the spring sometime I don't want to meet every month if we don't have to I mean everybody's busy and uh and I understand that and I mean I think we all have our marching orders from from at least from this meeting um you
guys have any new business or anything you want to bring up to the committee Don you haven't said much nothing much CCH uh spread from added uh to it streaming uh Max and uh
Paramount and some uh a Spanish channel uh was all streaming and they eliminated two channels I never heard of cartoon channels or something it's about it they've been very quiet but I they're showing ads I caught it the other day
about that little box I was talking about and but it's who knows where they're doing it and most of that stuff is the wora to the western part of the state right they because even the news they they get Spectrum news now
streaming so what and what the part of the state nothing around here yeah other than that it's they're quiet but they they showed that mentioned the box I saw last night he had and it's like a swimming box but
that's about it you know coming soon right they I the guy had told me that about two years ago one of the technicians that they're going to do away with all the boxes yeah it's going to be all streaming be a box about this size that's coming but who knows when M
we probably be the last ones to get it because we're we're like a satellite the W area there you got all connections every town is connected with even Viber sure right the Springfield
yeah and over here because we're Outpost they say it's like $4,000 a mile to run fiber optic lines yeah so they're running the the uh know the servers up in uh Oxford Mass
that's 80 something miles away you figure what's going to cost them to run to Westport just a a cable yeah unless they're going to lease Y no fiber optic off regular commercial people who knows yeah that that there's no commitment
yeah no there there won't be from them they all fber now or uh well they use crown castle for the buildings um but it's all Comcast with
Residential Service uh and it's not fiber it's still still a copper cable like over still copper cable yeah which reminds me Don um I'm glad you brought it up about interet um there has not been an internet advisory committee uh
in recent months so I don't have any real updates in terms of where the town's uh infrastructure is going I do know that the buildings are connected with f with fiber um the thought process was to try to expand that out to the to
the residential areas um cost prohibitive right now uh last meeting they were looking at various grants and funding sources to try to make that happen but I don't have uh um any any
new news regarding Shan mentioned that it's just on hold on yeah it's idle right now so uh David Cole is the one that kind of initiates a lot of it and I think he's been looking for some funding sources as well so um so we'll see where
where that goes um another thing to think about going Wireless you won't have actually cable come into your house when go fiber fiber will not be compatible to your connection so they're talking about
having little transmits maybe every quarter mile on a post be you receive a wireless signal to your for cable yeah it be like streaming it'll be all Wireless in the future yeah there'll be no no line coming to the house hopefully
In Our Lifetime hopefully um still have that W the bottom but that's of 192 yeah that's not going to go away yeah we have a similar problem in Fall River with the labeling
of of the channels on the guide but you know I think you know as as we all know the direction for at least you know we're we're having a presence now more on social media I think pursuing doing that is is a real viable alternative to
to at least keep your programming going the other thing that I think that you know when we do get um Steve wet's ear um I know there was some legislation um that they were looking at in terms of um
having the cable providers um provide revenue from their streaming and internet services to fund good local access good um and there is some legislation up at the state that I
don't know where it is right now but that would that would be good to uh at least ensure your funding see right now we just get money from a cable subscribers they have a box right if they're streaming it doesn't count right so and
a lot of people are dropping right you know their their cable boxes just keeping the uh and the fall service yeah yeah I don't know why they care they pass it along to the consumer anyway it doesn't come out of their hide exactly so yeah
yeah um so yeah if there's no other business I think we pretty much accomplished everything and W time um but next meeting TBA yeah do we have a second second I'll second all in
favor thank you all thank you everybody for