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Art Gaylord(Falmouth Initiative, Co-Founder of Open Cape)brought up two points. <br /> 1. All towns in the county are getting COVID relief money,part of that is specifically to <br /> be used for water, sewer,and broadband. Perhaps that could restore some of the cuts <br /> you're talking about. <br /> 2. Open Cape is working with the Tribe to get some federal grant money. <br /> Mr. DelVecchio said tribal funding could be a possibility, and asked if there is any way <br /> of connecting with fiber on Route 28 by the rotary. Art Gaylord said Open Cape does hit <br /> the rotary, but not on Great Neck Road South/Route 28. <br /> Sam Patterson(Falmouth Initiative) suggested to look into micro trenching,as it's much <br /> more conservative and a lot less expensive. <br /> 'emotion: Mr.Nelson moved that MCAT request time to speak at a Board of <br /> .�tmen's meeting to recommend the reinstatement of the funding for this critical <br /> .r,frastructure as a statement that this is a possible catastrophic error in not doing <br /> so,as well as exploring all funding from both the Federal Government COVID relief <br /> and research into the Tribal grants that may be available.We should also look into <br /> the possibility of microtrenching. Mr.Eliason seconded. <br /> Vote: 5-0-0 motion passed <br /> 5. Mashpee Community Television updates—Chris Ball. <br /> Chris Ball said the only thing to report is the planning for the Town Meeting on May 3ra <br /> They are now considering holding the meeting entirely outside as Mashpee went into the <br /> Red Zone (COVID)on Friday. Plan A is a hybrid of both inside and outside,Plan B is <br /> outside on the football field. They are waiting for a final decision to be made on April 12. <br /> 6. Chris Nelson and representatives from Falmouth initiative. <br /> Mr.Nelson has been speaking with Falmouth and the Falmouth EDIC regarding the <br /> construction of a municipal broadband outside of Comcast. He would like to get the <br /> Board of Selectmen involved sooner,rather than later. He introduced Mike DiGiano, Sam <br /> Patterson, and Art Gaylord to present the information from Falmouth EDIC. <br /> Mike DiGiano presented data from a study taken pre-pandemic for a feasibility analysis. <br /> The COVID pandemic led to more people using internet from home and exposed the <br /> limitations of a copper based system like Comcast. He's certain the 61%demand <br /> estimate from Falmouth residents would be stronger now. The system would pay for <br /> itself in about 5 years. The cost would be approximately$54 million. It's always about <br /> where the financing comes from. A town financed system with general obligation bonds <br /> would be the most straightforward path. There are some public and private ISP models, <br /> where the Town would finance the majority of the system and the private ISP would run <br /> and operate the system and basically pay rent to the Town for the infrastructure the Town <br /> built. Where we're at today is the Falmouth Net Group is undertaking a public education <br /> program and we've started talking to state and federal legislators. We've begun to hold <br /> conversations with private ISP operators to see how much interest there would be in the <br /> Falmouth market. One of those companies is Open Cape. <br /> Sam Patterson said the biggest issue is funding. It's not likely for towns to fund. <br /> Art Gaylord said Falmouth Net Group is now a formal non-profit organization. The key <br /> things they look for are take rate(how many people in town would use the service), <br />