Richard Knox: Your 'yes' vote needed to move Co-op broadband initiative forward

To The Daily Sun,

Heads up everybody who gets power from the N.H. Electric Cooperative: Your vote is needed if the co-op is to continue its newly launched project to guarantee fast internet service to members who currently lack it.

This week (Sept. 13) NHEC’s 85,000 members will be getting ballots in the mail for a special election. The Co-op is asking you to approve a change in its bylaws authorizing its member-elected board to make expenditures on broadband expansion. Without this change, the Co-op says, every expenditure would require members’ approval — a three-month process that would be totally unworkable.

A two-thirds majority is required for this bylaw change. 

You may recall there was a broadband issue on the ballot of NHEC’s annual election in June. This grassroots initiative fell just 183 votes shy of the needed two-thirds majority. But the NHEC board got the message. Within a week it voted to set up a broadband subsidiary. This summer the Co-op got a $6.7-million grant from Governor Sununu’s Emergency Broadband Expansion Program to get started. That subsidy will soon bring broadband service to Lempster and Colebrook. That’s just the beginning.

But progress will be halted unless two-thirds of voting members approve the proposed bylaw change. As the pandemic shows, broadband is necessary for remote schooling, working from home, telehealth and business development. Collapse of the Co-op’s program would be a shame.

Voting closes at midnight on October 14. Mailed ballots will have a unique code for members to enter when they vote online at nhec.com/broadband.

Please look for the mailed ballot and vote for this needed change.

Richard Knox, Chair

New Hampshire Broadband Advocates

Sandwich