Voting - Friday, March 11, 2022 4pm - 8pm at the Community Center

Annual Town Meeting - Saturday, March 12, 2022 9am - 11:30am at the Community Center

Mask wearing is mandatory - see the town health officers note here

2021 Town Report here and the 2022 Town Warrant here

Is the Covid Pandemic Really Getting Better?

Feb 23, 2022

Dan Onion, MD, MPH

Mt. Vernon/Vienna/Fayette Health Officer

293-2076; dkonion@gmail.com

Everybody seems to be ecstatically deciding it’s time to celebrate by throwing masks in the wind and quitting all other Covid precautions. There are indeed some indications that the pandemic from both the Delta and the Omicron variant that replaced it in late December and January here, is subsiding. On the other hand, the Omicron strain #2 has not yet been found in Maine but is zipping through Europe and starting to be found in the US. It is even more transmissible than the Omicron #1 strain. 

However, the pandemic outcome measures are only relatively better and there is reason to fear that we could see those measures go up again in yet another surge, starting a week or two into March. The public’s fervent but perhaps premature hope, with the abandonment of precautions, the appearance of yet another, even more infectious Omicron strain, coming on fast in the US, increased transmissions during the February school vacations and basketball tournaments, and our March town meetings, could all coalesce to bring us one heck of a new surge in late March.

Granted, the recent improvements of Maine wastewater Covid loads, hospitalizations and severe disease as reflected in ICU/ventilator use, could well be permanent, but they could also still be only a transient change. I’d like to see us achieve real community immunity, with over 80% of the population fully immunized by then. We are close now, at 73.4% of all, and 77% of eligible people (i.e. age 5 and over),

If all those worries are still diminishing through the end of March, maybe further opening up will be reasonable. But the older you are, the greater the risk. Since January 2021 to today, almost half the Covid deaths are in those 70 and older. I, for one, plan to get any boosters for which I am eligible, and to stay masked with good KN95s, N95s, or doubled surgical and cloth masks when indoors with people not recently tested and negative for Covid, for several more months, no matter further pandemic easing here in Maine. Please be Covid-careful for yourself and your family!

Tom Jewett’s  compilation of our February 2022 anonymous survey 

Follow the highlighted links to see the survey summary and survey comments. 

Survey Summary – This is a count of the survey cards returned.  Cards are summarized in groups that had the same answers to the 5 boxes shown on the report.  For example, there were 4 people who reported that they have Internet, via DSL, are satisfied with it, want better Internet, and want to town to pursue it.  There are 9 who have a connection, via cellphone, are NOT satisfied with it, want better Internet, and want the town to pursue it.

• It is difficult data to summarize because there are so many different possible combinations of service type, satisfaction and whether they want the town to pursue something better.  If you have questions or concerns please shoot me an e-mail or give me a call.  207-242-7612
• SurveyComments – I found it interesting that 55 people included comments written on the card.  I have printed those on this report.  They are not sorted in any way and some of the comments may be hard to understand without seeing the specific responses to the survey and the comment at the same time.  In spite of that, I thought that if people felt strongly enough to make a comment, I should pass them along to you.

The last time I picked up the cards was on Saturday Feb 19th.  There were 5 cards in that batch.  I do not pick up my mail every day.  This was the smallest number of cards on one pickup since we sent the letter and survey.  I’m guessing there won’t be many more.

Regards,

Tom

The slides from the Feb. 15 Broadband Informational meeting are available here

Broadband Informational Meeting

February 15, 2022 - 7pm

The meeting will be held at the Community Center(Fire Station) on Kimball Pond Road at 7pm. 
Masks required. 

Alternatively you can attend via Zoom, provided your internet connection is sufficient. 
No masks required in that case. 

Here’s the Zoom link for the February 15, 2022 informational meeting:

Topic: Broadband Information Meeting
Time: Feb 15, 2022 07:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86758305152?pwd=WWdEM3ZIUjI3T0QyNnkyVTduVFE4QT09

Meeting ID: 867 5830 5152
Passcode: 432265
One tap mobile
+13126266799,,86758305152#,,,,*432265# US (Chicago)
+19292056099,,86758305152#,,,,*432265# US (New York)

Dial by your location
        +1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago)
        +1 929 205 6099 US (New York)
        +1 301 715 8592 US (Washington DC)
        +1 346 248 7799 US (Houston)
        +1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose)
        +1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma)
Meeting ID: 867 5830 5152
Passcode: 432265
Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kdO3XkMBl6

This note is being sent to all Vienna residents via regular mail. Enclosed will be a postage paid post card with a short survey. Please fill it out and return it. It will help us get a sense of your opinion on this important matter.

To all Vienna Residents,

For nearly three years a small committee of Vienna residents has been pursuing how we might secure broadband internet for Vienna.  They have kept the Selectboard informed as the effort develops.  The Selectboard supports the efforts of that committee and has authorized and approved this informational mailing.

We in Vienna have a problem …

Fast, reliable and affordable Internet access (broadband) has become increasingly essential and will only be more so in the future. This was true even before the COVID pandemic which only served to emphasize this. 

Broadband is not available in Vienna. Our current choices of Internet access over the phone lines or dish antenna is the best we can get and this is about 1/10th the minimum speed the federal government defines as broadband. Many of our neighboring towns that have cable TV as an option are finding even that is too slow and unreliable for their current and future needs. 

Broadband is important for:

• Education - remote classrooms, adult education, job training
• Jobs - working from home/home business
• Remote health - at home consulting with your doctor
• Social - maintaining connections to friends and relatives using video chat programs
• Banking/bill payment - more convenient and less time driving. 
• Entertainment - Streaming TV channels, movies, music, games. 
• Environment - reducing use of our cars saves us expensive fuel costs and reduces CO2 emissions for a healthier planet. 

What are we doing to fix this problem?

Even before the pandemic, we in Vienna and neighboring towns recognized something needed to be done. Forming a coalition with 5 other towns (Mt. Vernon, Leeds, Readfield, Wayne, Fayette) we received state grant money to assess the situation and consider solutions. We examined what similar towns were doing both in Maine and in the rest of the US. It became evident that no private business was going to make the effort to provide affordable broadband in Vienna. There is simply not enough profit for them or it would have been done. 

We found that small rural sparsely populated towns like Vienna are taking the initiative to do this themselves. They are building an infrastructure of fiber optic cable to all their residents and then partnering with an Internet service provider to manage that network. The federal government is encouraging this and is providing Maine around 300 million dollars to assist towns by way of infrastructure grants. 

Our coalition, the Western Kennebec Lakes Broadband Association, has recently sent out requests to vendors asking them to provide proposals for building and operating a fiber optic network. By the end of January, 2022 we will have proposals from several vendors and will be negotiating with them to find the best solution for Vienna. Once we have firm costs in hand, we will be in the position to apply for the federal grant money. Sparsely populated and unserved towns like Vienna are being given priority for these grant funds. There will remain a cost to the town that would most be likely funded by a municipal bond paid by subscriber fees.

The Selectboard has directed the committee to prepare for and hold a Broadband informational meeting at the Community Building on Tuesday February 15th, 2022 at 7 PM. If you prefer to attend remotely that option will also be available. The link for the remote meeting will be on the Town of Vienna website.  Keep your eye on the Town of Vienna website, the Vienna Newsletter and notices around town for more news about the Broadband project

Important voter action on the Broadband project will be on the Warrant at the Town Meeting on March 11 and 12, 2022

What can you do to learn more about the project?

• Sign up for e-mail updates at here. We will be sending out emails from time to time to keep you informed of our progress. 
• Visit Viennamaine.org where we will be posting updates and links to useful information.  If you don’t have internet access, the Dr. Shaw Library provides computer terminals and WI-FI for public use.
• We are forming a Citizens Broadband Advisory Group that will be meeting a couple of times before the March town meeting to inform residents, discuss the project and spread the Broadband news to Vienna residents. If you would like to participate in the Advisory Group, contact one of the committee members listed below. 
• If you have more questions, contact any of the Vienna Broadband Committee members listed below:

Jim Anderberg 207-293-2673 Jim.Anderberg@Gmail.com

Tom Jewett 207-242-7612 tomj@mainetalk.com 

Ed Lawless 207-671-7204 lawcomm@fairpoint.net 

A postage paid anonymous survey card is being mailed to all Vienna residents.  Please take a minute to make your opinions known about Internet service in Vienna.  Please answer the first couple of questions even if you don’t have Internet access and don’t particularly care if Broadband is offered in Vienna.  The survey results will help guide the Selectboard, the Broadband Committee and the Citizens Advisory Group as they pursue broadband options for the town.

Reminder … sign up for the broadband mailing list  

Click here

After 3 years of planning things are finally coming into focus in our effort to improve high-speed internet access here in Vienna.

The COVID pandemic has highlighted the critical need for high-speed, reliable internet access, something not available to Vienna residents. The Federal government has recognized this and has authorized upwards of 300 million dollars to help Maine remedy this. We will be applying for grants to fund a fiber to the home project here in Vienna  

We will be sending out updates on our progress so If you are not already on our mailing list please sign up here. And tell your friends about this as well