Burlington Telecom’s fiber network lets me work from home and connect at high speeds to my office infrastructure in Burlington and to clients and websites around the world. In an era of big media aggregation (ie NBC/Comcast) I think its critical that Burlington’s citizens have the power to make decisions about what media we can access and regarding freedom of speech issues. I was on the City’s Burlington Telecom Advisory Committee for 2 years, elected immediately before financial mishandling came to light. I’ve always believed that we have a tremendous asset in our network, meeting with consultants from other networks while on the BTAC made it obvious that its world-class and needs to be protected. The quagmire that we’re in will require a creative and intensive effort to solve, my primary goal is to see the network stay in local control and to ensure that profits and economic impact is felt locally. I’m looking forward to working with this cooperative group in coming months to turn our telecom around, and I’m especially excited about the long term impact that this network will have on the region.