Public Education/ Discussion Meeting — Minutes

Town of Sturgeon Bay Broadband Internet Committee Meeting Door County Library November 15, 2023 Minutes 1. Call to order: The meeting was called to order by David Wood at 12:45pm. 2. Establish quorum: Board members present: David Wood, Jeff Feuerstein, Pam Kraase, Randy Graf. Absent: Cathy Eckers 3. Adopt agenda: Motion by Feuerstein to approve agenda. Second by Graf. Motion carried. 4. Review and approval of minutes from November 2, 2023 meeting: Motion by Feuerstein to approve minutes. Second by Graf. Motion carried. 5. Correspondence: Feuerstein – Robin from AT&T offered to attend one of the Broadband Committee meetings to introduce herself. 6. Public comment: No public members present, no correspondence to read. 7. Old business: a. The Q&A document created by Wood has been shared with other towns, specifically Egg Harbor. Wood sending document to members of Town of Sturgeon Bay (TOST) community to further answer questions, sent to people on S. Lake Michigan Drive. Wood and Doug Madel continue to converse via email about broadband related items. b. Broadband resolution for Town Board is still in progress. Town electors do not need to vote on bringing in broadband, but electors do have to vote on a tax levy to pay for it. Suggested process for the resolution is to go ahead with the contract, get the resolution written, and send it to the Town Board for review and approval. c. Committee needs to determine what the objections process is as objections are due to AT&T by 12/14/23. 8. New business a. AT&T submitted a grant application to Public Service Commission (PSC) for TOST. Ours was one of many applications AT&T submitted for a number of towns. There was more than one grant application that included at least part of TOST in order to increase probability of receiving funds, per AT&T. Committee has no objections to the grant applications and has agreed to let it ride and see what happens. b. BEAD summit i. Hugh Zettel provided process for mapping locations. Brief committee discussion that this process is underway, led by Cathy Eckers. ii. Question of who does the contract for the town, a lawyer or the broadband committee. Town boards have the authority to make decision regarding broadband for the community. iii. New BEAD requirements are 100/20. iv. Learned that if a town has a signed contract with a provider, BEAD monies will not be available to that township. v. BEAD monies apply to the unserved and underserved in an area. c. No discussion d. Per Hugh Zettel, the RFP data we received from AT&T should be included in the contract to clarify details. Current contracts are sparse in details. If not in RFP , we can use email discussions and trails to include more particulars to help nail things down. e. No members of public present, so no need for closed session. f. See above. g. See Old Business, section c. 9. Items for future meetings a. Financing: No further dialog re: financing outside of what has already been discussed. b. Increase survey participation: No discussion c. Improve accuracy of service maps: No discussion 10. Next meeting date: Thursday, November 30, 2023, 3:00-5:00 pm, Meeting Room 1 at Door County library in Sturgeon Bay 11. Motion to adjourn by Graf, seconded by Feuerstein. Meeting adjourned at 2:10 pm. Respectfully submitted by Pamela Kraase, Sturgeon Bay Broadband Committee member.