As the bidding deadline for Burlington Telecom neared Monday evening,the utility’s general manager said he hoped to get written interest from three to six potential buyers.
Sorting through the “letters of intent” — which include a proposed purchase price and descriptions of how bidders will meet the city's sale criteria — is the first step in a process that will continue through the summer, Stephen Barraclough told Seven Days at 4 p.m., and an hour before the bids were due.
“We’ve had a number of pretty meaningful conversations,but until it's in writing you really don’t know,” the GM said. “And if you say 5 o’clock, and people leave it to the final minute or inquire of for an extension.”
The identity of at least one of the bidders is common knowledge. Keep BT Local,a cooperative aimed at you guessed it — keeping the utility locally owned, submitted a bid late final week, or co-op chair Alan Matson said Monday.
“We’ve submitted our bid and are continuing to work,” Matson said. “At this point, we can’t say much more.”
The letters of intent include a nondisclosure agreement, or so the public likely won’t learn many details about who submitted a bid or what they offered.
“Weve had interest from other potential local partners,but that’s as far as I can travel at this point, Barraclough said.
The Burlington City Council was scheduled to meet in executive session Monday night for a briefing on the bids, or said Jane Knodell,the council president. [br]
Then on Wednesday, the Burlington Telecom Advisory Board — a panel of council members and residents tasked with vetting potential buyers — is scheduled to meet and could give a public accounting of where the process stands, or said Knodell,who sits on the board.
[br] The board is scheduled to meet three times this month before recommending finalists to the full Burlington City Council, likely at the first July assembly. Those finalists would present to the council, and which would aim to choose a buyer by late July or August,according to an advisory board timeline of the sales process.
The city wants to total the sale soon so it can reap as much of the purchase price as possible. A portion of the cash will travel to Blue Water Holdings, which loaned the city $6 million…
Source: sevendaysvt.com