Freetown Select Board Awards $461,000 Fiber Optic Network Contract

FREETOWN — May 19, 2025 — Freetown Select Board approves $461,000 fiber optic network and adopts FEMA hazard mitigation plan. The board voted unanimously Monday to award a fiber optic municipal area network contract to Comra at $460,654, rejecting a competing bid from CavCom LLC that came in at roughly $1.3 million — a gap of nearly $900,000 that officials attributed to the higher bidder padding for contingencies on a fixed-liability contract. The board also formally adopted the town's hazard mitigation plan after FEMA issued pending-approval status for a draft submitted in late 2024; consultant Craig Pereira of Horsley Witten told the board adoption "opens you up to opportunities that you otherwise wouldn't be available to" in the event of a presidentially declared disaster. The board awarded OPM services for a combined library and COA building to P3 Project Planning at $30,000 and approved a letter of support for a LULA lift grant application at the Council on Aging under the municipal ADA improvement program. A continued public hearing on a utility pole request at 89 Chase Road drew neighbors raising longstanding odor and farming complaints against property owner John Melo; the board ultimately approved the Eversource and Verizon pole installation with updated municipal-use language.