Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Ian Cain is joining us for an update on this week's Quincy City Council meeting. President Cain, how are you today?
[00:00:06] Speaker B: Good morning. I'm well, thanks, Joe. How are you doing?
[00:00:08] Speaker A: Great. Thanks for checking in with us.
A relatively quick but interesting meeting nonetheless.
[00:00:14] Speaker B: Yeah, it was. It was quick.
There were, you know, first, Councillor Dubona honored the Quincy Youth Football and cheer squad.
The board was there. There were a number of youngsters there from the football team and.
And cheer squad. I guess Noel had some nice words to say about the organization, which I think, as somebody noted, is quite possibly the oldest continuously running football program in the country of this, I guess, like a youth nature, which is pretty cool.
And so Nathan Knowles, who's the president of Quincy Youth Football, spoke. He said a few words and of course, we, you know, took a few minutes to take some pictures, but just great to see the, you know, parents and guardians and supporters and everyone in the. In the room first for such a nice, I guess, occasion.
[00:01:16] Speaker A: Yeah. 75 years. So congratulations to them. That's wonderful.
[00:01:19] Speaker B: Very good.
[00:01:20] Speaker A: I know that the counselors always enjoy having youngsters in.
[00:01:24] Speaker B: Yeah. Yes, they do.
Different, I mean. But you know what, it's cool to shed light on what a lot of the young people are doing in the city because I think that amidst other noise, you know, the young people, I think, get forgotten about, especially the goodness of what they do. You know what I mean? The majority of people in the city of Quincy are going about their business, enjoying their lives and doing things like this, supporting their. They're young people as they play football or play hockey or play baseball or play soccer. And so, you know, it is nice and always, you know, we get the Girl Scouts and the Boy Scouts, and I mean, these are people who are doing wonderful things, who are building character and in their own lives and through their different, you know, talents.
[00:02:13] Speaker A: And just two orders to deal with, right?
[00:02:16] Speaker B: Yep, just two orders. The first was in order to adopt a provision in the Mass General law which allows widows of disabled public employees to collect a certain allowance.
So I guess this had been, you know, it's a survivor benefit that the city has been honoring. And it. It was, I guess, at $6,000. And the rate was proposed to be changed to $9,000. And so we received a letter from the Quincy Retirement Board who had voted unanimously to make that change. And then we accepted that change. It was passed unanimously at the city council.
[00:03:01] Speaker A: Okay. And that's. That's just an annual allowance once a year.
[00:03:05] Speaker B: That's correct.
[00:03:06] Speaker A: Very good. Yep.
[00:03:07] Speaker B: And the next was. So we the city council had already approved the process for an alternative method of procurement for constructing the municipal broadband system known as design build. And so there was a technical issue that we incurred in the last go around, so we had to go back to this step to reapprove this design build method of procurement for construction for the fiber optic network, which we did last night. That passed unanimously as well.
[00:03:39] Speaker A: Okay, so what happens next with that project, Ian?
[00:03:42] Speaker B: So the. The project will go out for bid for phase one, which, which is what had happened before, but basically because of the technical error, all of the bids were essentially nullified. And then we had to come back to the city council to approve this.
And, you know, we discussed a little last night about the other parts of the process that are taking place. So we had the city council approved a revenue bond by home rule petition, which needed to go up to the state House. So that's currently in built the third. Third reading. Right now, the committee of third reading bills. I don't even know how that's called, but Senator Keene has been kind to shepherd that through.
And at the same time, we're starting a community process so that this system can start to be marketed and sold and people can start to make commitments as subscribers to the network.
So those two things, those three things, including now the process for procurement will be taking place. So, you know, still. Still cooking. Ideally, I think most optimistically, construction wouldn't start until the new year. You know, I think we're getting towards the end of this season, but at least, you know, we'll get things moving with the subscriptions and hope for the revenue bond thing comes through and get this, get this construction started.
[00:05:06] Speaker A: So is. Is the plan still to have kind of a. A test in Marymount and Quincy Point?
[00:05:12] Speaker B: That's correct. Phase one, Yep.
[00:05:14] Speaker A: Okay. And. And how will you kind of determine if it's successful?
[00:05:20] Speaker B: By the like, quote, unquote take rate, which would be the number of subscribers that. That join. So it'll all be foretold by this community engagement effort that will start soon. You know, so how many subscriptions are made? If it's over a certain threshold, then it's. It's looked at as a success.
[00:05:38] Speaker A: Okay. And if it's not, then it's not.
[00:05:42] Speaker B: Looked at as a success.
[00:05:43] Speaker A: Okay, so does that end the process there?
[00:05:47] Speaker B: I don't know, to be honest with you. I think that's why it's. There's a phase one. You know what I mean? I think this has all the best intentions. It seems to still have wide public Support. So, I mean, I'm, I'm confident that this will carry.
[00:06:01] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, you, you, you started this, what, five or six years ago? Probably something like seven. Seven years ago. Okay.
And you'll, you'll not be in office, Ian, when it's, when this test begins. How does, how does that, is that make you feel?
[00:06:17] Speaker B: I mean, that makes me feel fine. I mean, we still accomplished all the, I mean, the, the infrastructure for the infrastructure, so to speak. You know what I mean? Like we said, we set the stage, we've done all the hard work.
The rest is bidding and then having someone, you know, else put the thing together. But all the approvals we've, you know, we've put forward, I think the next approval that would be needed, you know, would be the financing again, which is back to the subscription. So I might miss that. But otherwise, and that's not a direct, that's not a bonding effort that would be borne by taxpayers as a whole. That the revenue bond is to ensure that it's paid by the subscriber base.
[00:07:00] Speaker A: Okay, so it's money upfront, but then the subscribers pay that back?
[00:07:03] Speaker B: That's correct. Okay, gotcha.
[00:07:06] Speaker A: And is there, do you have any idea about how, how much like a monthly service would cost right now?
[00:07:12] Speaker B: Well, ideally, because you're opening a competitive market over time, over, you know, the 20 year life of paying down the bonds to construct it. The goal is to get it on about $50 a month. Okay. For Internet service, I think you're paying about 20 to $30 per month for the operations and maintenance of the network itself. And so that'll bring it to about 70 or $80 a month.
[00:07:38] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:07:39] Speaker B: And that's for, and that's for, you know, a, what's called, you know, a gig, symmetrical, meaning that is your upload and download capacities, which you're currently paying for in a tiered system which could go as low as 25, you know, mega, mega bips, I guess you could say, all the way up to a gig, which you're paying a lot for.
So, you know, this, this will be a vast improvement at a.
Not a nominal increase. They're still paying less.
[00:08:12] Speaker A: No. Right. Yeah. And gig is sufficient speed for, for screaming services.
[00:08:17] Speaker B: Right, right.
Okay.
[00:08:21] Speaker A: And that passed, I'm assuming, last night?
[00:08:23] Speaker B: Oh, yes, that passed. Yep, that passed.
[00:08:26] Speaker A: Very good. Anything else?
[00:08:27] Speaker B: That's it. That was our, that was our meeting.
[00:08:30] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:08:31] Speaker B: And your next meeting is Monday, October 20th at 6:30pm Councilor McCarthy, the Finance Chair, requested that Mayor Koch come in to the council to talk about the city's debt service, which I think he had just put out a video on recently. So he's going to join us on Monday, October 20, to give a presentation.
[00:08:52] Speaker A: Oh, very good. Okay.
Anything in Ward 3 to note?
[00:08:57] Speaker B: No, nothing in particular.
[00:08:59] Speaker A: Very good. Always appreciate the time, Ian.
[00:09:02] Speaker B: Thanks, Joe.
[00:09:03] Speaker A: Have a good day.
[00:09:03] Speaker B: You too. Bye. Bye.
[00:09:04] Speaker A: Bye. Bye.
