With months until Casco Bay Advisors presents a Boothbay and Boothbay Harbor broadband inventory, the Boothbay Harbor Broadband Committee discussed grants, surveys and best practices with Lincolnville Communications Inc.'s Alan Hinsey and Matt Hurley March 2. Hinsey and LCI vice president Randal Manning met with the board in October.

Boothbay Harbor selectmen voted Sept. 23 and Boothbay selectmen voted Sept. 25 to accept Casco Bay Advisors’ $18,000 proposal to inventory all broadband connectivity between both towns.

"The first proposal that came out indicated that it would be completed by March, but … the one we signed and agreed to says the end of April for the final report,” said Boothbay Selectman Mike Tomacelli.

Boothbay Town Manager Dan Bryer said the start date for the study was moved up due to Casco Bay Advisors' prior commitments. "But 66% (complete) is pretty encouraging considering the timeline.”

While ConnectME will have about $500,000 in grants in April and May, the Legislature is working on bringing a $15 million bond to voters in November, said Hinsey. “There are a few other bills – an $8 million regular budget bill that's passed the committee now … which may go right into the ConnectME funding for next year.”

LCI is working on a project in Bremen, which plans to apply for some of this April's ConnectME grant money, said Hinsey. Many projects are expected to apply for these grants this spring, Hinsey added; however, he said, the two towns may want to consider small projects for pockets of unserved or underserved areas.

ConnectME looks at grant applications with the lowest cost per home served, said Hinsey. One of LCI’s upcoming projects will cost just over $360 each for 400 homes. “Anytime you can get it below $500 per home served, then you get all the points for that ConnectME piece.”

Hurley said because fiber optics is the way of the future and is quickly becoming more affordable, the downside to studies and consultations is that the information can become stale fairly quickly.

“We have very fresh, fresh information about what everything costs: By the mile, by the address, how much it costs to install it, how much the materials cost … In this arena, the costs are changing very, very rapidly. The good news is, the cost of installing fiber generally speaking is getting a lot cheaper a lot faster … We can help quickly decide what's viable, what's worth going after."

Committee members discussed several surveys viewed over the past few weeks and determined a short, concise survey would be the most productive way of matching up the raw data of the inventory to how residents feel about their coverage and the costs.

Said member Ken Fitch, “What we want to know is, do people have it? If they don't, do they want it? How much are they willing to pay for it? That's the metric right there … If we can get that information, that data and match it to what we get (in the inventory study), I think we'd be in good shape.”

The only problem with surveys by mail is the cost of postage and manpower, noted Bryer: The towns would be looking at over 5,000 mailers for year-round residents, but over 10,000 for seasonal residents.

He and Boothbay Harbor Town Manager Julia Latter agreed it may be simpler for the committee to look to the newly formed Joint Economic Development Committee for those funds.

The broadband committee meets next at 6:30 p.m. April 6 at the Boothbay Harbor town office.