Most Recent Chairman's Award Winner
2011 Chairman's Award Recipient
James Forcier
Chazy & Westport Telecom
Jim Forcier of Chazy & Westport Telecom of Westport, N.Y., is the 2011 recipient of the OPASTCO Chairman’s Award. The award was presented to Forcier at OPASTCO’s 48th annual Winter Convention. Forcier’s work at Chazy & Westport Telecom, on behalf of the greater telecom industry, and at OPASTCO are only a few of the many achievements he has made during more than four decades in rural telecommunications.
What is now Chazy and Westport Telephone Corporation and Westelcom Communications began more than 100 years ago. The Forcier family made the business their own after the company became locally owned in 1951. During his high school and college years, Forcier worked as a lineman, installation repair technician and central office operator. In 1973, Forcier began his managerial career in the telecommunications industry.
Six years after he joined Chazy & Westport Telecom, Forcier was promoted to Vice President. He was named company President in 1995, and in 2007 he became CEO.
Under Forcier’s leadership, the once small, local company doubled in size and strength. He was at the cutting edge of telecommunications services when he launched high-tech phone and broadband services and the telephone company was the first in the North Country to offer DSL high-speed Internet access.
Part of Forcier’s formula for success was staying on top of industry technical and policy developments. He did this, in part, through his involvement with OPASTCO. After years of participation in committees and at conventions, he joined the OPASTCO board in 1994 and in 2001 he served as OPASTCO’s chairman.
Under his leadership, OPASTCO made significant strides as a national association, and those strides bring benefits to our industry today. Always pragmatic, it was 10 years ago that Forcier ramped up OPASTCO’s focus on broadband and cable television. ISP and CLEC Committees were formed, and for the first time OPASTCO dedicated staff and resources to Internet, broadband and media issues. The fruits of those labors can still be felt today as our industry transitions to all-broadband networks. Cable television and broadband issues touch every aspect of our broadband businesses, whether our companies offer video services or not.
Forcier also ramped up OPASTCO’s lobbying efforts. With a full-time lobbyist hired for the first time the month before he took over the OPASTCO chairmanship, under his leadership, OPASTCO came out of the gate running full-speed up Capitol Hill and made real accomplishments molding broadband legislation and making estate tax repeal a reality.
When our nation collectively grieved from the tragedy of September 11, Forcier used his role as chairman of OPASTCO to assist those in need. The Foundation for Rural Education and Development’s (FRED) Board of Directors wanted to raise relief funds to help those affected by the acts of terrorism. Forcier focused OPASTCO’s resources to support FRED’s fundraising effort. Calling on rural companies and the customers they serve, FRED and OPASTCO raised more than $68,000. The funds went to a rural community in Pennsylvania that had been changed forever by the events of September 11th. United Flight #93 crashed just outside Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Shanksville’s volunteer fire department was unable to get its old fire engine to the location of the crash site and had to use small tanks to fight the blaze. The rural community had been trying for years to replace its aging firefighting equipment. The $68,000 raised by FRED and OPASTCO went to help buy the volunteer fire department a new fire engine.
The year after Forcier was OPASTCO’s chairman, he returned to serve on the board . He already had served his two three-year terms before he became chairman, but OPASTCO needed him to help continue many of its previous year’s accomplishments, so he served an additional year on the OPASTCO board before turning his sights to more local endeavors.
Since his time with OPASTCO, Forcier has remained very active in the telecom industry, serving on the New York State Telephone Association board and as its Chairman in 2007. He has also been active in local economic and social groups. He has served as Chairman of the Westport School Board ; President of the Westport Chamber of Commerce, board member of a variety of groups including the WCFE Public Television Station, Red Cross of Clinton County, SUNY Foundation, Champlain Valley Physicians Hospital, Essex County Business Council and is currently serving on the Elizabethtown Community Hospital board. He has been a faithful member of the North County Chamber of Commerce, the St Philip Neri Church Council and the Westport volunteer fire department’s Initial Attack Team.