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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2007-01-18-CAC-MIN 1 Minutes of the January 18, 2007 Meeting of the Communications Advisory Committee Recorder: Linda Roemer The meeting was called to order at 6:33 p.m.. Present during the meeting were CAC members: Maria Kieslich, John Rommelfanger, Jeanne Canale, Jim Baker, Dave Becker, Dave Buckzkowski, Jim Gonzales and Linda Roemer. Also present at various times during the meeting were Jill Reddish of Verizon Video; Tom Steel of RCN; Alan Lazarus and George Preston from LexMedia,; George Burnell, the Selectmen’s Representative to LexMedia, and Jack Cunha, citizen. Lex Media Report . LexMedia’s Report was moved to the top of the agenda because of a schedule conflict. Alan Lazarus circulated a draft of the report that he intended to nd circulate to the Board of Selectmen at their meeting on January 22 and asked for comments and questions. This report included a summary of corrections to the December th 18 report, contractual obligations for production of programs by LexMedia staff, bulletin board and programming promotion, archiving of tapes and DVDs, inventory and broadcast logs, outreach and training, and producer policy, and new developments. A programming log was attached. Several items elicited comments and discussion. It was agreed that there needed to be two sets of backups and that this should be on DVD: one copy kept by LexMedia and one copy to be put at Cary Library accessible to the public. It was deemed not sufficient to have only one set of backup tapes. Indexing remains a goal. The movement of information from LexMedia through the Selectmen’s office and CAC was discussed. George Preston pointed out difficulties with data base entry at the present time. It was agreed that CAC should get whatever Lynne Pease gets in terms of reports and financial statements. George Burnell suggested quarterly reviews of LexMedia by CAC with regard to operational issues involving PEG, finances and purchases. He noted that there would be a time lag, but the CAC felt that 45 days was timely enough. Streaming of some programs is available on www.forsdick.com/lm The aim is to increase this. th Minutes . The minutes of December 12 were approved on a motion by John Rommelfanger and a second by Dave Becker. There was a question as to whether the appointment of Linda Roemer had been recommended by the committee. Jeanne Canale said she had polled the committee and Linda had been appointed by the Selectmen. The minutes of December 21 were approved on a motion by Dave Becker and second by Jim Baker. Comcast Report. Jane Lyman was not present but had sent a message that the work at the National Heritage Museum and Cary Hall was completed. There was discussion again about the policy of not providing iNet capacity in non-town buildings. 2 RCN Report . Tom Steel raised the question and there was discussion about whether everything went back to the studio or could. LIFT goes directly from the church and SCOLA from the high school. Tom said that in Arlington and other towns where there is fiber, it was easy for everything to go through the studio and there could then be some control. Tom apologized for missing meetings and briefly discussed the trouble with the switch from TV Guide. The problem has been resolved as was the outage. He told the CAC that RCN was willing to do bill inserts but would need considerable lead time and would have specific requests about size, paper and such. Because it’s renewal time there will be RCN discussions with Dave Becker and Dave Buczkowski. Tom said that despite the federal attempts to make town contracts unnecessary, RCN will go for renewal. There was discussion about the bandwidth currently available in Lexington. T1 is 5 megabytes and the fee of $500 per month was forgiven. There is an additional 1.5 megabytes available for a total of 6.5. John Rommelfanger mentioned that WiFi would require more bandwidth. WiFi would compete with current providers. Tom said that in that case, RCN might put in a condition that if it gave bandwidth it could not be used for WiFi. Tom also noted that there is no sale or merger on the horizon for RCN. He also noted that RCN is picking up MDUs (multi-dwelling units) and has a cooperative relationship with Comcast on these and hopes Verizon will be equally as cooperative. Verizon Report . Jill noted that the drop dead date for PEG to be up and running on th Verizon is February 27 and they expect to meet that. She said George and the others at LexMedia had been great to work with. Members of the CAC suggested that they th should be ready before the 27 so that problems could be ironed out. There is a new address: verizon.video.inquiries.ma@verizon.com This is for municipal clients and is the preferred route. However, e-mails could still be sent to Jill. She noted that she could not tell the committee where exactly they would build out next for competitive reasons. Chairperson’s Report . Jeanne read a communication about price increases and the financial reports were discussed. ACTION: Jeanne will check on payments to Peter Epstein on 9/22, 10/20, 11/17 and 12/15. Maria noted that the bottom line on the PEG account had revenues and expenditures exactly the same as last month’s report. There were other issues with the accounts. ACTION: Maria will put together some questions for Jeanne to ask the appropriate officials including how it is decided which account gets charged and who approves payment and on what basis ACTION: The CAC should receive copies of all bills. 3 ADTech Proposal. DaveBecker reported that ADTech keeps adding costs for the Selectmen’s Meeting Room and he’s not sure they want to do it. He feels that another bid should be obtained. The last bid was $51,000 and he was expecting about $39,000. Wireless Update. Some piecesseem to be moving. There have been meetings with representatives of two carriers for siting cell antennas on town property in response to an RFP. Both carriers are interested in putting one in an area in the woods near the parking lot of the Old Res and another one on school grounds. The town is trying to get a coordinated approach so that towers can be used by multiple carriers. There was an amended application for the Spring Street site and it appears that the requirements have been met. Complaints. Jeanne is waiting for confirmation on resolution of all complaints that were received. There was a discussion about what CAC members should do when they find out about problems outside of a formal complaint, e.g. on a list. After an extended discussion, it was decided that as a general rule we should not respond to these but if it is something important, it should be referred to the Selectmen’s Office and the protocol followed. ACTION. The protocol for complaints should be posted on the CAC web site. LexMedia Subcommittee Report. Jim Gonzalez reported that at Jeanne Krieger’s initiative, he, George Preston, Alan Lazarus, Jeanne Canale and Jeanne Krieger met after the CAC meeting. Jim reported that there was a good discussion about what we were looking for, e.g. quarterly reports. There was also a discussion about the shortfall in money needed to build out Kline Hall. The current estimate if $398,000. Jim estimates that LexMedia has about $300,000 to put toward that. Avalan withdrew its pledge of $200,000. Jim reported that he had met with the Town Manager, Jeanne Krieger, Jeanne Canale, George Burnell, Rob Adelson and Alan Lazarus and that the Town Manager had done projections of the PEG account for the next full year. CAC members discussed the cost of the build out versus the funds available and possible sources of additional funds, e.g. CPA money, loan, letter of credit. For the town to take out a loan on behalf of LexMedia or for LexMedia to secure a letter of credit would require an act of the legislature. Clearly, there is not enough money to finish in March and completion will have to be delayed at least until the fall so LexMedia will have to renew its lease. Members also expressed some concern about the possible lack of funds for equipment after construction and increasing costs for construction. Next steps will be to understand what the LexMedia board is thinking and to follow-up with the Town Manager who is involved. 4 ACTION. For the February CAC meeting, LexMedia’s board should be asked about their plans. Requests for information should follow the approved lines. CAC requests go to Alan Lazarus as chair of the LexMedia board. The Town Manager requests information from the Executive Director of LexMedia. WiFi in Lexington. John Rommelfanger reported on his preliminary investigation of this item. The question is whether Lexington should or should not do something about town-wide WiFi. Several issues were discussed including the possibility of zones rather than the entire town, investments already made (for example by T-mobile in Starbucks), and competition with cable providers. The meeting adjourned at 9:55 p.m. 1 Minutes of the January 18, 2007 Meeting of the Communications Advisory Committee Recorder: Linda Roemer The meeting was called to order at 6:33 p.m.. Present during the meeting were CAC members: Maria Kieslich, John Rommelfanger, Jeanne Canale, Jim Baker, Dave Becker, Dave Buckzkowski, Jim Gonzales and Linda Roemer. Also present at various times during the meeting were Jill Reddish of Verizon Video; Tom Steel of RCN; Alan Lazarus and George Preston from LexMedia,; George Burnell, the Selectmen’s Representative to LexMedia, and Jack Cunha, citizen. Lex Media Report . LexMedia’s Report was moved to the top of the agenda because of a schedule conflict. Alan Lazarus circulated a draft of the report that he intended to nd circulate to the Board of Selectmen at their meeting on January 22 and asked for comments and questions. This report included a summary of corrections to the December th 18 report, contractual obligations for production of programs by LexMedia staff, bulletin board and programming promotion, archiving of tapes and DVDs, inventory and broadcast logs, outreach and training, and producer policy, and new developments. A programming log was attached. Several items elicited comments and discussion. It was agreed that there needed to be two sets of backups and that this should be on DVD: one copy kept by LexMedia and one copy to be put at Cary Library accessible to the public. It was deemed not sufficient to have only one set of backup tapes. Indexing remains a goal. The movement of information from LexMedia through the Selectmen’s office and CAC was discussed. George Preston pointed out difficulties with data base entry at the present time. It was agreed that CAC should get whatever Lynne Pease gets in terms of reports and financial statements. George Burnell suggested quarterly reviews of LexMedia by CAC with regard to operational issues involving PEG, finances and purchases. He noted that there would be a time lag, but the CAC felt that 45 days was timely enough. Streaming of some programs is available on www.forsdick.com/lm The aim is to increase this. th Minutes . The minutes of December 12 were approved on a motion by John Rommelfanger and a second by Dave Becker. There was a question as to whether the appointment of Linda Roemer had been recommended by the committee. Jeanne Canale said she had polled the committee and Linda had been appointed by the Selectmen. The minutes of December 21 were approved on a motion by Dave Becker and second by Jim Baker. Comcast Report. Jane Lyman was not present but had sent a message that the work at the National Heritage Museum and Cary Hall was completed. There was discussion again about the policy of not providing iNet capacity in non-town buildings. 2 RCN Report . Tom Steel raised the question and there was discussion about whether everything went back to the studio or could. LIFT goes directly from the church and SCOLA from the high school. Tom said that in Arlington and other towns where there is fiber, it was easy for everything to go through the studio and there could then be some control. Tom apologized for missing meetings and briefly discussed the trouble with the switch from TV Guide. The problem has been resolved as was the outage. He told the CAC that RCN was willing to do bill inserts but would need considerable lead time and would have specific requests about size, paper and such. Because it’s renewal time there will be RCN discussions with Dave Becker and Dave Buczkowski. Tom said that despite the federal attempts to make town contracts unnecessary, RCN will go for renewal. There was discussion about the bandwidth currently available in Lexington. T1 is 5 megabytes and the fee of $500 per month was forgiven. There is an additional 1.5 megabytes available for a total of 6.5. John Rommelfanger mentioned that WiFi would require more bandwidth. WiFi would compete with current providers. Tom said that in that case, RCN might put in a condition that if it gave bandwidth it could not be used for WiFi. Tom also noted that there is no sale or merger on the horizon for RCN. He also noted that RCN is picking up MDUs (multi-dwelling units) and has a cooperative relationship with Comcast on these and hopes Verizon will be equally as cooperative. Verizon Report . Jill noted that the drop dead date for PEG to be up and running on th Verizon is February 27 and they expect to meet that. She said George and the others at LexMedia had been great to work with. Members of the CAC suggested that they th should be ready before the 27 so that problems could be ironed out. There is a new address: verizon.video.inquiries.ma@verizon.com This is for municipal clients and is the preferred route. However, e-mails could still be sent to Jill. She noted that she could not tell the committee where exactly they would build out next for competitive reasons. Chairperson’s Report . Jeanne read a communication about price increases and the financial reports were discussed. ACTION: Jeanne will check on payments to Peter Epstein on 9/22, 10/20, 11/17 and 12/15. Maria noted that the bottom line on the PEG account had revenues and expenditures exactly the same as last month’s report. There were other issues with the accounts. ACTION: Maria will put together some questions for Jeanne to ask the appropriate officials including how it is decided which account gets charged and who approves payment and on what basis ACTION: The CAC should receive copies of all bills. 3 ADTech Proposal. DaveBecker reported that ADTech keeps adding costs for the Selectmen’s Meeting Room and he’s not sure they want to do it. He feels that another bid should be obtained. The last bid was $51,000 and he was expecting about $39,000. Wireless Update. Some piecesseem to be moving. There have been meetings with representatives of two carriers for siting cell antennas on town property in response to an RFP. Both carriers are interested in putting one in an area in the woods near the parking lot of the Old Res and another one on school grounds. The town is trying to get a coordinated approach so that towers can be used by multiple carriers. There was an amended application for the Spring Street site and it appears that the requirements have been met. Complaints. Jeanne is waiting for confirmation on resolution of all complaints that were received. There was a discussion about what CAC members should do when they find out about problems outside of a formal complaint, e.g. on a list. After an extended discussion, it was decided that as a general rule we should not respond to these but if it is something important, it should be referred to the Selectmen’s Office and the protocol followed. ACTION. The protocol for complaints should be posted on the CAC web site. LexMedia Subcommittee Report. Jim Gonzalez reported that at Jeanne Krieger’s initiative, he, George Preston, Alan Lazarus, Jeanne Canale and Jeanne Krieger met after the CAC meeting. Jim reported that there was a good discussion about what we were looking for, e.g. quarterly reports. There was also a discussion about the shortfall in money needed to build out Kline Hall. The current estimate if $398,000. Jim estimates that LexMedia has about $300,000 to put toward that. Avalan withdrew its pledge of $200,000. Jim reported that he had met with the Town Manager, Jeanne Krieger, Jeanne Canale, George Burnell, Rob Adelson and Alan Lazarus and that the Town Manager had done projections of the PEG account for the next full year. CAC members discussed the cost of the build out versus the funds available and possible sources of additional funds, e.g. CPA money, loan, letter of credit. For the town to take out a loan on behalf of LexMedia or for LexMedia to secure a letter of credit would require an act of the legislature. Clearly, there is not enough money to finish in March and completion will have to be delayed at least until the fall so LexMedia will have to renew its lease. Members also expressed some concern about the possible lack of funds for equipment after construction and increasing costs for construction. Next steps will be to understand what the LexMedia board is thinking and to follow-up with the Town Manager who is involved. 4 ACTION. For the February CAC meeting, LexMedia’s board should be asked about their plans. Requests for information should follow the approved lines. CAC requests go to Alan Lazarus as chair of the LexMedia board. The Town Manager requests information from the Executive Director of LexMedia. WiFi in Lexington. John Rommelfanger reported on his preliminary investigation of this item. The question is whether Lexington should or should not do something about town-wide WiFi. Several issues were discussed including the possibility of zones rather than the entire town, investments already made (for example by T-mobile in Starbucks), and competition with cable providers. The meeting adjourned at 9:55 p.m.