Town-wide Notification System Likely in the Hands of New Town Manager
Fidium Fiber coming to Bar Harbor at dial-up speeds
BAR HARBOR––A town-wide notification system was the main topic of discussion at the brief Communications and Technology Committee’s meeting on Monday evening.
TEXT BASED NOTIFICATION SYSTEM
The sole regular business item was to discuss a proposal for a town wide texting notification system. Member Cosmo Nims asked for a brief overview of the system since he had been absent from the previous meeting.
Chair Lucas Callado said that the idea is for a channel of outbound communication from the town to residents or any subscribers to the system. The inbound communication side is the trickier part of the system because it requires someone to filter the incoming messages and distribute them properly.
A big part of the system would be notifications such as winter parking bans, a street closure due to a watermain break, etc. and it would help to have someone back in the communications position said committee member and Town Councilor Matt Hochman.
Vice Chair and Secretary Todd Edgar asked advisory member and Bar Harbor Technology Systems Administrator Cornell if he needed any direction from the committee. Edgar said that he knows that it is just in the discussion phase and the new town manager hasn’t been here long enough for them to know how he feels about a communications role for a staff member, but asked if there is anything that the committee can be doing in the meantime.
Cornell said that the town’s website provider, CivicPlus, has a module to accomplish the notification objective but that this is not really a technology project but is more of a communications project.
It was started by the town’s communications coordinator, but there is no longer a staff communications position, and Cornell said he is not really clear on the current status of the project. It’s really going to be dependent on what the town manager wants to do. It is a public safety, police and fire departments, and highway department project and all of those department heads need to have buy-in to do the project, Cornell said.
Cornell also said that the representative from CivicPlus said that the only way for the program to work is to roll it out once and make sure all components are in place before rolling it out.
There should be a communications point person for this to work so that it doesn’t just end up back on Cornell’s desk. There is financing in the budget for that position, but it is ultimately up to the town manager said Hochman.
The original concept for the notification system was introduced by Town Councilor Maya Caines who was at the time the town’s communications coordinator, during one of ex-Town Manager Kevin Sutherland’s “Manager’s Minutes” at the Jesup Library. The concept had been prompted in large part by the MDI High School lockdown that occurred on November 1, 2022. Caines was let go from that position shortly after Sutherland’s resignation as town manager in January 2022.
FIDIUM FIBER COVERAGE
Before adjournment, Hochman asked Cornell if had heard anything about high-speed Fidium Fiber coming to Bar Harbor. Hochman said that he had communicated with Consolidated Communications but nobody ever got back to him and he was wondering if they were dragging their feet.
Cornell said that he and advisory member and Finance Director Sarah Gilbert met with a couple people from Consolidated Communications, but do not have any date as of yet for when Fidium will start. He feels that the company is still very committed to the project and that it is going to have to leverage the fiber buildout that its employees been working on and wouldn’t be putting out so much money without actually rolling out the system. To answer Hochman’s question more thoroughly, he added that he doesn’t think that the company is dragging its feet.
NEXT MEETING AND MINUTES APPROVED
Hochman moved to approve the minutes from the last meeting with Nims seconding and the minutes were unanimously approved. The agenda was adopted and the first regular item, an update on the cable consortium status was quickly covered.
Cornell said that there is also a tentative meeting planned for the cable consortium planned for December. Callado asked if there was anything that the committee needed to do before the meeting and Cornell said no.
The next committee meeting is tentatively scheduled for December 18.