Engineering staff told council the broadband/cellular request-for-proposals closed Nov. 7 with four responses and that the town will evaluate proposals and select one firm to negotiate design and potential deployment.

Town Engineer said the four firms that submitted proposals are Harmoni Towers (national tower builder), TTT Holdings (regional tower contractor), Lucky Fiber LLC (regional fiber provider) and T-Mobile (national carrier). "Their proposal was the most comprehensive ... of the 4 proposals," the engineer said of the T-Mobile response, which the staff described as detailed but not yet formally scored.

Staff said a 4- to 5-member internal committee will review proposals and that a recommendation could come back to council at the Dec. 8 meeting; staff also said the RFP requested both wireless/cellular and wireline/fiber options so evaluators would consider a mix of solutions to fill coverage and upload-capacity gaps. No cost estimate was provided at the Nov. 10 meeting; staff said pricing will be part of negotiations with the selected vendor.