22-05-2025
It took two votes, but Town Meeting decides against borrowing for fiber optic network
SOUTHWICK — For the residents who attended Town Meeting Tuesday, what happened inside the auditorium will not soon be forgotten after decisions were made on several contentious issues that included bylaws to regulate hunting on private property, adopting regulations for town-owned and private property, and borrowing millions to build a fiber optic network.
Before the meeting even started, it was clear that residents wanted to participate in what is called the purest form of government as hundreds streamed into the auditorium at Southwick Regional School filling every seat and forcing dozens to sit in folding chairs brought in to allow everyone to participate.
And they did.
As the meeting got underway, moderated by Celeste St. Jacques, the seven 'housekeeping' articles on the 28-article warrant were quickly deposed of before the main event of the evening — Article 9 — asking residents to approve borrowing $16 million to build a town-owned fiber optic network.
It failed during a voting process that can only be defined as unusual.
Earlier this year, the High Speed Internet Committee, which was chaired by Select Board member Douglas Moglin, had agreed that the best way forward on building the network was to ask Town Meeting for a borrowing authorization of $16 million which would be drawn down as need for the network's construction over five years. The committee also adopted a monthly subscriber price of $90 and for the financials to work, it needed about a 50% percent participation — or take — rate.
As St. Jacques opened up debate on the article, a former member of the committee was first up, and what he proposed surprised many.
Robert Boyd took to the microphone and made a motion to postpone the vote.
'The numbers did not work in my opinion,' Boyd said, adding that despite his opinion, he was still in favor of the town building a network.
Because Boyd had written the motion down and proposed it as an amendment, Town Meeting had to vote on his request.
Moglin defended the article's intent and said it was the consensus of the committee to ask Town Meeting to vote 'up or down.'
Before the vote was taken, Jim Putnam, the town's former Town Meeting moderator, asked if postponing it would be for 'indefinite' amount of time or 'time certain.'
Before his question was answered, Juliet Hansen moved the question, which stopped debate and forced a vote on Boyd's amendment.
It failed.
Richard Holland then took the microphone and asked how much the network would cost.
Moglin explained, as he has for the last year, that the borrowing for the network would be paid for by the subscribers to the service.
Pete Reiser then asked Moglin what if there were 'zero' takers, and if the town had done a feasibility study to determine if there would be enough subscribers to finance the borrowing.
Moglin said the town did send out a survey and that generally there was support for building the network.
Following Reiser, another resident also was worried if the participation rate didn't get to 50%, the town's taxpayers would be on the hook to pay off the borrowing.
'It would then become a money-losing proposition for the taxpayers,' the man said.
While there were negative comments, a nearly equal number of residents supported the project.
Amber Bach said it would be a 'win-win' for the town, businesses, and schools, with Christian Bach adding, 'Let's get some competition in town.'
Alex Liptak said his experience with the town's current internet provider, Comcast, was the 'worst he'd ever seen.'
Kimberly Hatch made a point about how competition with Comcast would be a plus for the town.
'If there's no competition, what are the costs going to be?' she asked.
Greg Burke went even further than Hatch, saying that Comcast and Eversource have been 'abusing' their customers for too long.
As debate wound down, St. Jacques asked Town Meeting for a voice vote on the article. The article needed two-thirds of the total voters to be approved.
The voice vote was inconclusive, so St. Jacques asked for hand count.
Those voting yes held up green index cards and those voting no had yellow cards.
After several minutes of tallying, St. Jacques announced the results.
Of the 557 who voted, 353 voted yes, and 204 voted no. The article fell 15 votes shy of meeting the two-thirds threshold.
With the announcement, the opponents yelled and applauded in celebration and many began leaving.
That's when the voting process became unusual.
As some of the victorious opponents were leaving, Maryssa Cook-Obregon stepped up to one of two standing microphones in the auditorium and asked for a vote to be held again, this time, with paper ballots.
'I think it would instill a lot more confidence if we went with paper ballots,' she said.
There was an immediate reaction from audience members.
Some began yelling the vote had already been taken. Others yelled that many of the people who voted had already left.
However, because a motion had been made to use the ballots, it needed a vote of Town Meeting to allow the paper ballots to be used.
There was some confusion about whether a two-thirds or majority vote was needed to have the paper ballots used.
After consulting with the town's legal counsel, Benjamin Coyle, it was decided the vote to use the paper ballots would have to be approved by a two-thirds vote.
St. Jacques called for a voice vote, which was, again, inconclusive.
At that point, it was decided to use the paper ballot to vote on using the paper ballots for the revote on the article.
It was announced, and employees from the town clerk's office and volunteers began coordinating the vote.
It took about 45 minutes, but everyone in the auditorium filed to the stage to place their votes into a ballot box.
It took another 10 minutes to tally the votes.
Once done, St. Jacques walked to the podium and announced the results.
Of the 488 who voted, 310 voted yes and 178 voted no. It missed passing by two-thirds by 12 votes, which meant the first vote was official and the article was not approved.
On Wednesday, Moglin, who had been advocating for the town-owned fiber optic network for over five years, spoke of the outcome in an email.
'[It was] great to see so much engagement — while I'm disappointed in the outcome, I respect the feedback we received and will factor that in to any future discussions around providing this important service to Southwick residents and businesses,' he wrote in an email.
He also thanked the High Speed Internet Committee members who worked to bring the project forward, and the Whip City Fiber team that worked with us to present this option to our residents.
Read the original article on MassLive.
