Temple is shooting for a unanimous approval of the town’s broadband internet bond at Town Meeting, Broadband subcommittee Chair Jessica Hipp said at Wednesday night’s bond hearing. The hearing was the second-to-last required step in the town’s process.
Jeff McIver
We’ve all heard the expression, “There’s no point in closing the door after the horse has already left the barn!” It’s a warning to take action before it’s too late. Preventing a problem in the first place is clearly the ideal solution. Yet the legislature has demonstrated several times it’s content to wait for a problem to manifest itself before taking steps to implement an obvious fix.
I’m talking about several legal safe harbor bills in both the NH House and Senate that have been “retained.” This means the legislature will hold onto the bills over the summer and into the fall with the possibility that they may (or may not) act on them next year.
NH Business Review
Public-private partnerships have led over 20 communities to enhance infrastructure
April 8, 2021
In 2019, Chesterfield was the first. In 2020, five more followed: Dublin, Harrisville, Rindge, Walpole and Westmoreland. This year, 16 New Hampshire communities are poised to enter into public-private partnerships to expand broadband access and modernize infrastructure – Charlestown, Fitzwilliam, Gilsum, Goshen, Greenfield, Jaffrey, Langdon, Marlborough, Marlow, Peterborough, Roxbury, Salisbury, Sullivan, Temple, Troy, and Unity. In total, the projects amount to well over $40 million in investment.
What do these communities have in common? They have agreed that public-private partnerships are an effective way to address their broadband needs. In each case, they’ve used a unique combination of municipal bonding combined with a monthly fee on subscribers to make payments on the bond. The majority of communities this year chose to partner with Consolidated Communic
Published: 3/9/2021 9:34:53 AM
Peterborough’s path to fiber internet looks different from surrounding towns. The town is poised to vote on an article that would spend $262,288 to provide fiber internet to the 20% of its residents underserved and unserved by high speed internet at Town Meeting this year. Although Peterborough joins neighboring towns Temple, Greenfield, and Jaffrey in voting on a contract with Consolidated Communications this year, Peterborough won’t be bonding, unlike most other towns that have pursued a municipal broadband rollout in the past two years.
Why no bond? Effectively, the only difference between Peterborough’s proposal and the popular municipal bonding route is that Peterborough doesn’t have to pay interest, Community and Economic Development Coordinator Karen Hatcher said. The cost of wiring 20% of the town’s residences was low enough that the town could absorb it without taking on the long-term debt of a bond, she said. The proposal before vo