Select Board renews Verizon cable license and approves three-year DPW contract

LINCOLN — November 15, 2021 — Lincoln renews Verizon cable license for five years and ratifies a new DPW and water department contract. The Select Board voted unanimously Nov. 15 on both items after a public hearing led by special counsel William Hewitt of KP Law, who secured a flat $12,000-per-year capital payment over the five-year Verizon term — $60,000 total — rather than the per-subscriber formulas Verizon now typically demands. Town Administrator Tim Higgins said the DPW contract delivers cost-of-living raises of 2 percent, 2 percent and 2.5 percent over FY22-FY24, adds Juneteenth as a holiday, and includes a step increase to maintain parity after multiple compensation hikes addressed a state DEP staffing order in the water department. Chair Jonathan Dwyer noted that roughly $400,000 in cable revenue funded audio-visual equipment at the new school auditorium, crediting volunteer Cable Advisory Committee Chair Jim Cunningham: "If Jim was not a volunteer, the availability of money to invest in the community wouldn't be there." Higgins also previewed a Wednesday visit by the state Secretary of Housing and Economic Development to confirm a $400,000 South Lincoln septic grant.