Advocates for a public, high-speed municipal network for Northampton Massachusetts
We’ve been both amazed and deeply gratified by the response from the Northampton community to our campaign: Vote Yes on Question 1. When we originally decided to fundraise to spread the word about the vote, we didn’t anticipate how much support we would get. We set our sights on doing a mailing to “likely” voters …
The City of Northampton will receive $21,747,984 from the federal government to use to address issues due to the covid-19 pandemic. Potentially some or all of this money could be used to construct a municipal network, since the law allows these funds to be used for (among other things) investments in broadband infrastructure. During the …
As of this Sunday morning, residents of Northampton have contributed $1415 toward our Yes on Question 1 campaign. This is 70% of our goal! In addition we have received 21 sign requests so far and since we announced bumper stickers, requests for 3 stickers as well. If you need a sign and/or bumper sticker, use …
Northampton voters will weigh in on whether the city should be permitted to create a municipal network in November’s election. This is because a vote to create a municipal light plant (MLP) will be on the ballot. A hundred years ago, municipalities used the law to create power plants. Today, although the term municipal light …
Thursday night, the Northampton City Council approved 9-0 a first reading of a proposed ballot question on municipal broadband. It needs to be approved at one more reading, which is likely to be at their next meeting on September 2. The first reading of the proposed ballot question was an important step forward. The second …
It’s been a couple of months since highlights of residential and business municipal network surveys were announced by Northampton Mayor David Narkewicz. Since then, activities have moved ahead steadily and without fanfare. The city’s contractor, Design Nine, provided the city with a formal report on the residential and business surveys conducted in the spring. It …
The Daily Hampshire Gazette published a somewhat lengthy article on the city’s broadband plans on Thursday, with an emphasis on the general findings from the broadband study and where the city can go from here. It mentioned that the City Council voted for a second time to create a municipal light plant (MLP) at the …
Nearly four hours into a lengthy City Council meeting Thursday night, Mayor David Narkewicz reported a set of preliminary statistics from the broadband survey sent to city residents and voters. 2800 residents returned residential surveys, which is 25% of Northampton households. Design Nine, which conducted the survey for the City, reports typical response rates are …
On tomorrow night’s City Council meeting agenda: a resolution from Mayor Narkewicz for the City to adopt to create a municipal light plant. If created, a municipal light plant would become the vehicle used to create a municipal network for the City. A similar resolution was approved last year. State law requires that the resolution …
Monday a number of local leaders participated in a virtual forum on municipal networks. Two members of the Northampton City Council attended: Bill Dwight (councilor at large) and Gina-Louise Sciarra (councilor at large, council president and mayoral candidate). You can watch the video below: Participants also included representatives from Holyoke, Agawam, West Springfield and Springfield. …