The Readfield broadband project has highlighted a lack of voter education that persists in Readfield. I have always enjoyed living in our town even though the young family population keeps shrinking and costs of living keep increasing. I have served on the Conservation Commission and helped write grants to improve town trails at no costs to the taxpayers. Working full-time and raising a young child with my wife makes it even more important that vital town information is impartial and forthright.

When I heard that there was going to be a $5 million bond for broadband, I decided I should look into the project. I have since read all the posted minutes of the Broadband Committee, attended a committee meeting, and attended a Select Board meeting to ensure I had both sides of the story. I was hoping this due diligence would make me feel at ease, but it made me feel worse. I write this to encourage you as Readfield residents to take a closer look at not only this extremely risky broadband project, but Readfield’s budget, which has a proposed 80.2% increase over the 2022 budget.

The total proposed Readfield budget for 2023 is $12,545,634, with the proposed broadband project being one of the multiple increases to the budget. We all realize broadband is extremely important to a modern life, but this project is redundant and wasteful. It is on the backs of the taxpayers to subsidize a business who wants to put all the risk onto the townspeople.

Here are some of my concerns about the broadband project:

Readfield started investigating this issue in 2021 and the stated goal of the broadband committee was to expand broadband access in Readfield with a focus on broadband equity. The Select Board asked the committee for a fair review of the options, needs, and costs to bring to the voters. Although this sounds great, we the voters are not getting what they asked for. The town decided to move forward (aided by marketing service from Axiom Technologies) before voters are able to form an educated vote.

The town had a feasibility assessment by Casco Bay Advisors that stated that there were 1,331 potential subscriber locations in Readfield and that there were only 83 unconnected locations. At the Select Board meeting, I asked the town manager how many subscribers Axiom stipulated in their contract as a minimum for service. He said it was confidential and we could not know. He did say their goal is 35% of the available locations. Simple arithmetic would put this at 465 subscribers. In the March 2 Broadband Committee minutes, there is a table that summarizes the options. The Axiom proposal costs $5,272,289, which works out to roughly $11,339 per subscriber. That is the same cost as if we just paid for 465 houses to get 12.5 years of Spectrum for free! Other towns who have worked with Axiom have actually increased the subscription cost to cover the construction.

In Bruce Bourgoine’s May 25 column fighting what he calls misinformation, he states that’s what the town intends, but the town manager has proudly stated that Readfield will make “no money on the project.” Instead, property owners will shoulder the full burden and cost of construction so upwards of 35% of residents can receive a duplicative service.

Looking outside the extremely expensive and impractical proposal with Axiom, Spectrum has said in the documented Broadband Committee minutes that they would connect all unserved houses for $167,000. Let’s do that. If we need to increase the nodes to get some people better internet, let’s do that. Let’s not increase the town’s budget by 82% and end up owning a broadband network that we will inevitably have to fix forever. I will be voting no. Please vote no on June 14.

Brent West is a resident of Readfield.

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