##VIDEO ID:dcE_Kcxl7Uw## good evening everyone my name is Rebecca Ley I'm the deputy Town manager for East Long Meadow thank you for being here this evening um we're here to explore digital equity in the town of East Long Meadow I secured a grant for the town and that Grant is being paid directly to our consultant kimley horn who is uh here tonight to uh give a short presentation and we're exploring digital equity in order to create a plan for the town uh and then once we have a plan we'll be able to um go after additional funds for implementation and digital Equity has to do with the access that we have to the internet whether it's accessible and affordable it has to do with whether folks have the devices that they need to communicate with loved ones uh to get on the internet to do uh reg business or even to uh conduct tella health and other uh appointments online and then finally we're also looking at the digital skills that folks have uh to ensure that when they get a device they're able to um manipulate the settings to serve their needs to uh surf the web and uh work with ease online um so tonight I'd like to present uh Bill Scully our consultant with kimley horn and I'll pass the mic over to you Bill thanks for coming right thank you Rebecca um good evening everyone um with me from kimley horn tonight is uh Lisa and MJ uh who will be helping me during the evening um following the presentation we've got some activities and information gathering to complete um so what we'd like to do today um at the meeting is one just a short overview of of uh the program in in the uh East Long Meadow digital plan that we're working on uh also gain input from the community we've been here all day we've been gathering information uh we were at the senior center earlier today we were at the library this afternoon and and GA just continue to gather information as to um people's ability to access the internet their ability to use the internet and then we'll discuss barriers and opportunities to promote digital uh Equity so after the short presentation we've got uh some activities to go through to really try to uh understand everyone's uh connection capabilities uh literacy skills and uh and and adequacy of your Computing devices as Rebecca was saying so the MBI Mass Broadband Institute um is a Statewide organization and they have been Distributing grants to communities to really look at these issues um what we're finding and and as some of you may recognize when you're just out driving driving around um you don't always have good access to the internet and and in these days it's it's essential uh and almost a requirement to be connected 24/7 um so they developed a grant program to help communities start to assess needs and develop a blueprint moving forward um East Long Meadow is one of the communities that did receive a grant uh earlier in the year and we've been uh working with the community over the past few months gathering information and uh uh data um the program assists those communities making decisions identifying actions setting priorities and as Rebecca said ultimately you can then search for Grant uh possibilities of for implementing whether it's training programs or equipment um things like that so digital Equity um Equity is a great term that we've been using in almost everything these days digital Equity really relates to not only um you know it could be levels of income um where lowincome may not have access to Internet may not have access to equipment but also geographically within the community some areas of a of a community have very poor access to the internet and some have great access So the plan and the program really is trying to um make that consistent within the community so that everyone has opportunities um to to tie in and and then and then do things whe whether it's uh working um uh personal related activities sometimes health related activities um the three major components of of this program is to look at as I mentioned adequate Computing device the uh reliable broadband connection and then digital digital literacy skills um so in we see variation all the communities we're working with a a real wide range of uh of issues within all three categories so Broadband in general is a high-speed internet access um it's always on you as an individual you as a household you as a business may or may not be able to connect to it it's there it can be fixed or mobile um uh uh the uh Federal Communications has defined uh minimum criteria that would would uh indicate you do have high-speed uh internet so downloading speeds of 100 megabits per second um and uh upload speeds of 20 and in uh in E long Meto we've identified the different providers and on this chart you see some of the the categories of uh download upload by residential and Commercial Services being provided the check marks indicate oh we've hit that criteria so Spectrum you can see 1,000 mega bits per second upload 35 check mark so you've met that 100 or 20 but you can see um you know viat you know satellite type of service for that uhoh oh there it goes um the x's and you uh don't satisfy that criteria now it gets a little bit confusing because you can go to ViaSat and say see that oh you could get that service and it provides really higher Services higher speeds than that but but this is what we've seen in the town of East Long Meadow through our research and conversations in town but also um in other communities we're working in in and also other communities we're not working in but Mass Broadband has been conducting studies and gathering information very common things that that may lead to some actions the town can really take a lead on and some of them hopefully you know Mass Broadband or a higher level can uh assist with some of those actions but you know we've seen slow Wi-Fi yes that that does occur a lot but one service provider tends to occur in almost every one of the communities we've been seeing um and it's usually tied to you know cable it's bundled um costs are fairly High which is the next one even today as we're talking to people um uh I don't have it I don't really need it it's way too expensive for me um some of them did have it pay the high price and then they found an alternate way to to get service may not be great service but they are paying $50 less per month to get something um then the digital literacy Gap so that that one too is a little bit tricky to uh to assess but just even in today's conversations where some of the seniors for example um well I don't like to ask a lot of questions because I don't want to feel kind of uh illiterate or you know or they don't know the question to ask um so that does exist out there I know myself I I don't know much about connecting doing the it stuff and connecting and doing all the the tricks in the trade so you know you need help and so we're ident trying to identify those kinds of gaps certainly you know a young kid in high school is pretty Adept to it um and the and some of the seniors you know are less less likely to to be that or they're afraid from the the security point of view so that that literacy also relates to that speed matters uh in any service you're providing in the you know it's nice with the town of East Long meow you're moving forward with that fiber optic system um but we we use the internet for so many things these days uh Public Safety um health so since the pandemic there's a lot of Health Care being done tella Health um myself sometimes I'm tied in on a computer talking to um uh my doctor's office on things um work Economic Development um you need good service to encourage development in the community whether it's industrial or retail things to support the residential population and then energy and transportation so it's it's very important to have um good service high quality high speed uh for all of those reasons the purpose of this is to develop as I said earlier a blueprint to point the town in a direction uh yes we know fiber optic systems coming but there's things to be done and other you know in addition to that uh to meet those uh different needs and and uh the components of digital Equity so that's one of the main purposes that we have here uh as part of this project the development process of the plan is outlined here we're currently in the process of obtaining public input we've been researching data um we will and have been discussing with key stakeholders in the community going through an interview process just getting into a conversation with them uh of what uh how they see needs and what they're using things for uh what difficulties and issues may exist and at the end of all that we compile all that information into a a real good understanding of the current condition in the current needs and then we'll we'll identify potential actions and work with the committee to prioritize those actions going forward and then that will enable the the town to start to implement M also search for certain grants to help Implement those actions um a lot of interest today in our conversations over the course of the day was uh well where is this going to go do we see the town really doing something and implementing these things you know how does this really how is this going to really improve the situation for me um so where we've been hopeful with them and uh uh telling them this this is the first step in a blueprint and uh we we can identify things so the implementation uh looks at these areas uh We've outlined a couple of different funding sources um right now I mean there's different things that in for example public housing uh communities there's residential retrofit programs there's the mapc apartment Wi-Fi program that may be able to help older public uh housing uh communities to to u to get service into that site and then there's other programs as well um so those will be part of the plan is to identify some potential funding sources and um and then another thing we've been doing and this is really the end but um of the presentation but uh the mass Broadband Institute has been conducting Statewide survey um of Services of for individuals in their household to see how that service is affecting them um can they get uh online easy the cost of it what do they see as difficult do they feel their needs are met so what we've been doing as part of the East Long Meadow study is encouraging additional local East Long Meadow uh residents to complete those surveys um and and that that'll be all rolled into not only getting to the state Mass Broadband but also uh taken into account when we um Define existing conditions and start to identify needs and with that I'll conclude we are going to do some activities but I'd be happy to answer any questions that you might have thank you very much e for