The Boothbay Harbor broadband committee announced Jan. 4, a request for proposal has been submitted to Spectrum, Consolidated Communications and Lincolnville Communications. The RFP details a project expanding internet access to the roughly 2% of Boothbay Harbor homes not covered.

Chair Tricia Warren said with LCI's work in Appleton, Hope and Lincolnville coming to a close, the company should become more available. The committee should also speak again with Sales and Marketing Director Alan Hinsey at the Feb. 1 meeting when LCI will likely be ready for questions asked at the Dec. 7 meeting, she said.

“All we really have to do right now is wait to see what comes back from the RFP and hope for the best,” said Warren.

Member Darrell Gudroe said he is concerned the project is so small that due to LCI’s attention to its recent projects, and due to Spectrum’s vastness, the town might receive no bids.

Town Manager Julia Latter said if the town does not receive a bid from any of the three companies, the RFP will be resubmitted. The town can also reject any bid. Latter said proposals are due back by Jan. 22.

Warren announced the broadband survey now has 171 responses. Only two responses are paper copy submissions. “Out of those 170 people, it appears to be, I would say, around 95% are for the fiber.”

All members agreed response to the survey has been excellent. However, member Mike McBride said it may indicate a slightly skewed base. “It sounds like people who don't have internet maybe aren't answering the survey and because of that, do we really have a valid subset of people that represents the entire community?”

Gudroe said the committee considered that problem when first discussing the survey and assumed those with limited access to it would join the conversation at a public meeting. “Since nobody can really go out in public, picking the (surveys) up and filling them out has obviously proven difficult.”

McBride said it will still yield information, but the committee should be wary of considering the results representative of the entire town, especially when determining if most residents and business owners want to see an expansion of fiber broadband. “I just don't think we can know because of the survey when we're not getting the people who don't have internet and don't use it.”