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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2005-01-20-CAC-MIN Meeting Minutes Communications Advisory Committee January 20, 2005 Present: Jeanne Canale, Jim Akimchuk, Steve Ellis, Jim Baker, Miriam Boucher, Jeanne Krieger (Board of Selectmen representative) and Jane Layman (Comcast representative) Minutes for the December meeting not approved due to lack of a quorum. Jane Lyman's Comcast report. 1. Nick Cannalonga, the landlord at Kite's End, has agreed to let Comcast sublet the present studio space to the town until the end of June. Comcast will continue on the books as prime tenant. Comcast wants a certificate of insurance for a general liability policy for 1 million, prior to the middle of March. The beneficiaries would be Comcast and Kite's End. 2. Comcast will continue to cover monthly utility costs and payment of contractors (current Comcast employees/contractors). The Town of Lexington will pay just rent at $2,114 per month for the period of March 1, 2005 through June 30, 2005. 3. Studio equipment list. Jane will do a comparison of the original equipment list, the equipment list in the franchise renewal and Jim's list of current working equipment. This comparison does not include obsolete equipment. Jim's inventory is equipment that was working last fall that isn't working now. Jane pointed out that the language in the franchise includes an 'as is' clause. We all need to understand and agree on the current inventory and state of equipment . It is unlikely that any equipment will be replaced. Repair is possible. 4. Jane would like a letter stating what we intend to do in Kite's End during the month of March. The letter would say (1) that we would like Comcast to allow RCN into Kite's End for the purpose of installing a cable drop. (2) The purpose of this drop is to enable a live feed for Town Meeting. (3) In order to facilitate this we want access during the weeks of March ## to ##. Jim to draft and send a letter to Jane Lyman. 5. There is language in the license about Comcast connecting to the media center to the fiber network if/when it moves. It is unknown where the studio will move to it, thus it is unknown whether or not there will be a cost to connect, and if there is a cost, how much. Comcast would like as much advance notice as possible of any move. 6. Jim Baker asked how many Comcast subscribers are there. Answer: 4,400. He also mentioned an outage on Monday. Question as to whether or not a credit due to an outage is automatic. Automatic credits are given under some circumstances. A subscriber can always request a credit. There was a question as to how long the outage needs to be before it's legally defined as an outage with legal implications. 7. Steve Ellis asked if Comcast has a policy statement about providing service to schools. Answer: If the school is listed on the DOE website, they have to submit an application and contact Jane Lyman. Preschools and school administrative offices are not eligible. Connections are for K-12 and public schools only. One cable modem provided. School is responsible for all additional connections and costs. Free basic cable and free Internet access offered. 7. Complaint from subscriber with advanced boxes. $15.00 credit given. All fixed now. RCN. 1. Ed Steel may not present at the 1/24 Board of Selectmen meeting due to a personal issue as scheduled. We would like to know, in advance, what position he's going to take. 2. The request of the BOS for RCN to delay its build out until Comcast could partner cost a delay of at least two years. Jeanne K. has brought up Lexington's role in this delay in the past and will bring it up again. One proposal is that RCN commit to doing 10% of the build out per year. RCN says that it would cost 1.5 million to get service to the residents that don't currently have access to RCN. Funding: The committee could not vote on requesting Board of Selectmen to allocate funds for the Media Center and Scola as there was no quorum. Jeanne C. will do a poll vote - call members to get their opinion and then ratify the decision at the next meeting. Review of BOS presentation for 1/24. Jeanne K. to print presentation and get to Lynne to get to the BOS. Jeanne K. to distribute copies of modified presentation. Miriam gave report on BOC. Due to a snowstorm the meeting scheduled for earlier this month has been rescheduled for later this month. At the next meeting the process for soliciting and selecting a Board of Directors will be defined. The current timeline indicates that the BOD won't be functional until at least April. If real estate becomes a problem, there are other buildings in Lexington where play back deck equipment could be placed to allow broadcast of official programs for a short period of time. Cary Hall is just best. Any building with an INET connection could be used. To place equipment in a school building, we would need permission from the School Committee. Equipment may have to be stored. Ideal would be a 3-6 month lease. Goal is Cary Hall for 7/1. CAC should be able to use Cary Hall for storage. SCOLA: CAC pay for one more year and than turn bills over to Media Center. Annual cost: $1,680.00 Town meeting preparation. Jeanne C. working with Connie and Jim and Tom Steel. Jeanne received a list of questions from RCN. She's working on getting answers. Town meeting will start at 7:30 instead of 8:00. Close captioning covered; same person used as previous years. Ideal would be for Media Center to pick this up. Cost was $4,100 for last year. Jeanne will call Lynne and ask how to get payment for Close Captioning. Jim Baker. Discussed his request that the 'flood of emails' be minimized. The suggestion was made that the committee meet twice a month and that less business be done via email. He would like to deal just with Cable, satellite and TV issues. Steve Ellis. New form 100 is now in effect as of 1/1. 10-15 communities responded. Most responses were from cable operators. The requirement to provide the local system specific financial information as removed. Form 100 asks the companies to list the other services that they plan to offer, for information purposes only. Part of our role is to answer subscriber questions and we need this information to do this. They still have to provide a lot of information that may no longer be needed.