Advocates for a public, high-speed municipal network for Northampton Massachusetts
On Thursday, our coalition met virtually with Mayor Sciarra. The Mayor thanked our coalition for helping move a municipal network forward. She brought us up to date on where the city is on creating a municipal network. Here are some highlights from our meeting: A feasibility study is due shortly from Design Nine. The City …
In this post we look at various ways the city could manage a municipal network. There are a lot of choices, but one thing is clear: to do it, the city will create a municipal light plant (MLP). It’s this entity that will have authority to manage a municipal network. In last November’s election, voters …
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 …
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 …
As reported in today’s Gazette, yesterday’s City Council meeting was dominated by discussion of the police department’s budget, resulting in a meeting over seven hours long. However, at 2:25 AM the City Council did unanimously approve the creation of a municipal light plant (MLP) for Northampton. An MLP would be a legal framework for creating …
Mayor David Narkewicz has submitted a proposal to the Northampton City Council for its meeting tomorrow, Thursday, June 4, 2020. It requests that the City Council vote on the creation of a Municipal Light Plant for the city. A Municipal Light Plant is a legal framework for a municipality to offer services like a high-speed …