COLRAIN — The Colrain Selectboard has signed a contract with Westfield Gas & Electric to manage the build-out of the town-owned fiber optic broadband network. This spring, the town received the first payment of its $1.3 million Last-Mile connectivity grant from the state Executive Office of Housing and Development.

Town Coordinator Kevin Fox said the utility, which does its broadband business as “Whip City Fiber,” will meet with Colrain officials in its Westfield headquarters on Sept. 5, to introduce them to some of the people they will be working with and to go over the process. In October, a Colrain “walk-through” meeting will take place between town broadband officials and the designer and fiber engineer.

Westfield’s Operations Manager Aaron Bean said a dozen Last-Mile towns have signed up with the company, for design, engineering and representation as the “owner’s agent” in the build-out process. He said a design and engineering company is under contract with Westfield for the design work. He said Whip City personnel will help the towns identify qualified contractors and manage the quality control.

“It’s an adviser role,” he said. So far, towns under contract include Ashfield, Beckett, Charlemont, Colrain, Cummington, Leyden, New Ashford, New Salem, Plainfield, Rowe, Washington and Windsor. Contracts are pending with Chesterfield, Shutesbury, Wendell and Heath, he said.

On Monday night, Shelburne Cable Advisory Committee Chairman Michael Duffy asked the board to consider extending Colrain’s fiber optic network to about 18 of the 22 households that are not included in Comcast’s cable expansion plans to cover 96 percent of the town. Duffy said these homes are on Colrain’s town border. Duffy asked the board to find out how much it would cost for an estimate of adding these additional properties to Colrain’s network.

Duffy said Shelburne would expect to pay for costs of adding Shelburne homes to Colrain’s fiber optic network. Also, said Duffy, it may benefit Colrain to have additional subscribers using its town-owned network.

Selectboard members said they would ask Westfield about the addition when they meet.