Partnership Aims to Speed CT Towns’ Ride on Information Superhighway

A group that advocates for the collective interests of most of the state’s towns and cities announced a partnership with a technology firm to expand and optimize municipalities’ access to the high-speed Nutmeg Network.

The Nutmeg Network, a closed statewide broadband network, aims to give the state’s municipal governments and first-responders access to a high-speed and redundant Internet connection to further public safety. It allows entities that are connected to it to communicate with each other and share applications and other services such as criminal justice databases, Next Generation 911, and emergency response systems, among many others.

If a town or an entity wants to join, they have to apply and be accepted. It’s the application process — and the securing of grant funds — that the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities is pledging to help its member towns with. Digital Back Office, a Milford-based company, will help towns and cities with the development and implementation of services on the super-secure network.

“CCM worked hard on behalf of municipalities and collaborated with the Governor and the General Assembly last session to enact legislation that vastly improves municipal access to the State’s broadband Nutmeg Network,” said Jim Finley, CCM’s executive director and CEO.  “These advocacy efforts resulted in greater municipal representation on the network’s governing body, increases in the amount of state grant funding for municipal connections, and reductions in the rates municipalities are charged for network services.  As is the case with any new technology, there is still more work to be done to maximize the municipal benefits of this network.”

Finley said CCM is working on two fronts:

• Lobbying the state to extend a Dec. 31 deadline for submitting municipal applications to the state Office of Policy and Management for funding to build out local connections to the Nutmeg Network
• Offering a workshop in Meriden Dec. 4 to help towns understand the benefits of being connected to the network

According to a news release, CCM touts the following possible municipal uses and available services for a secure, redundant Nutmeg Network connection:

• Sharing services such as payroll and accounting, human resources, GIS, fleet management, public safety operations, and crime analytics
• Disaster recovery/business continuity
• Video teleconferencing
• Web content filtering
• Domain-name services
• Enhanced DNS firewall and network performance monitoring
• Redundant Internet connection
• Virtual private network between local governments and the state

 “We are committed to working hand-in-hand with CCM to provide information and services to CCM member towns that will expedite their connection and access to the Nutmeg Network and help them secure grant funding,” Dale Bruckhart, Vice President of Digital Back Office, said.