LEYDEN — Leyden voters have approved transferring $63,000 from the town’s technology stabilization fund to help pay for a townwide broadband system.
The measure passed 68-2 on Monday.
“I think there is a strong feeling in town that we need this,” said Broadband Committee Chairman Bob Ryan. “A good number of citizens consider this basic infrastructure and without it, it’s a quality-of -life issue.”
About $20,000 of the money approved Monday will be used to help pay for a utility pole survey by Eversource and Verizon to determine how much it will cost to create space for the new wires that will be needed to operate the network, Ryan said. The remaining $43,000 will go toward a $321,000 payment for MBI to start the project in the spring.
In total, the project is expected to cost $1,750,000, with Leyden paying about $1,070,000 and the Massachusetts Broadband Institute making up the difference, Ryan said.
The installation of the network is expected to begin in the late fall of 2017, Ryan said previously.