This morning we met with the Greater Northampton Chamber of Commerce’s Economic Development Committee to discuss a community network for Northampton.
Curiously two members of the City Council are on it (Dennis Bidwell, Ward 2 and James Nash, Ward 3) giving us the unexpected opportunity to pitch our initiative to at least part of the City Council.
There was good discussion and the committee seemed very supportive and engaged as well as informed. We suspect both counselors Bidwell and Nash will support this initiative and they expect the mayor will as well. They think the likely hurdle would be the timing of any override that would be needed to support this work, which would be bundled with other override matters. It may not be necessary as we suspect that Massachusetts law makes this a separate process.
Anyhow, we will be meeting with the mayor Monday at 2 PM.