HomeMy WebLinkAbout1997-01-23-CAC-min.pdf CATV and Communications Advisory Committee
Minutes for January 23, 1997
Members present at the meeting: Garibian, Becker Warshawer, Buczkowski, Kanter, Bussgang,
Ellis, Longcope and Peter Atherton of Cablevision.
Julie Longcope was appointed secretary for the meeting and Jack Cunna is the complaint person
for February
1) December 12, 1996 meeting minutes:
The December 12, 1996 minutes were approved with the following corrections:
4) Conflict of Interest - correct the statement " which might technically be in
violation. to " which is technically in violation.
8) Report from Cablevision: Trevor Dingle is the V.P of Human Resources.
2) Reports on Board of Selectmen's Meeting Nov 4
1) Peter Atherton said that the Cablevision check would arrive by 1/31/97
2) The discussion on the governance of the I-Net with Bill Dailey has not been
held. However, the money for an I-Net Administrator has been put back in the
budget as a part-time position.
3) Caleb Warner wanted to know if this committee should be in charge of the hearing-impaired
equipment in the Selectman's Meeting room. The response was that the custodians would
be the appropriate persons, and that George Woodbury should be so informed.
4) Mass. Cable Commission:
David Kanter reported that on 12/27/97 Outcome Published that the CATV Advisory
Boards should avoid conflict of interests and recommend the each Advisory Board write
up their duties. Since we already have our charter in writing, we conform. The
commission would welcome input, therefore, David will reply to the commission that we concur
5) Follow-up on legality of proxy votes:
Jane Garibian spoke with legal counsel and was told that we can not use proxy votes.
Rather, it is suggested that the votes of members present be recorded and a telephone pole
of absent members can than be reported to the selectmen.
6) Bedford/Lexington Religious access meeting:
Access goes to Bedford line and Bedford can shut it off, is they so desire. Bedford would
like to keep this arrangement.
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7) Selectmen's Meetings:
Caleb Warner is concerned with the poor quality of the transmission of the meetings.
High school volunteers appear to not pay attention while transmitting. There is an audio
volume problem. Peter Atherton of Cablevision says that they would be willing to plug in
their audio. It was suggested that maybe we should use some of the Cablevision money to
pay volunteers. Steve Ellis will find out who is responsible for scheduling the volunteers
and report back.
8) Wall Street Journal reported on Cablevision using cities and towns in N.Y for pilots in
Internet connections, and members wondered if there was a possibility of Lexington
participating.
Peter Atherton replied that this was all part of a network rebuild and that would not
happen in Lexington for 2-3 years.
9)Report from Cablevision:
a)Peter announced that David Green had made no commitment as to a specific time for
remapping and therefore there is no schedule. CATV members made it clear that David
had promised that when the last 5% of swap-outs had occurred, there would be
remapping. Remapping is a technical necessity and a mandatory service from Cablevision
and we need a schedule.
b)Ed Harbist has resigned as program director and interviews for his position will start
next week. In the interim, Jill Knox will take over
CATV members send their greetings and thank you for Ed's help in the past.
c) The character generator has been refurbished and is now operational.
d) History Channel/ESPN2 is packaged but SPECTRUM has yet to be offered by itself.
e) Marketing Problem: Cablevision did not tell consumers about additional charges on
additional outlets when promoting a new package. Therefore, they will either give one
month free service for the"full house" or credit the customer's account if they decide to
drop the promotion.
f)Drummer Boy CATV committee is still waiting a response on this issue.
g) Museum of National Heritage wants a residential drop and an I-Net connection. Peter
wants to know to whom they should speak about the I-Net drop. The Network
Administrator is Steve Ellis, and he should be contacted.
10) License Negotiations: Steve Ellis reported that is not worth pursuing removing "public"
from the wording"public schools" on the errata sheets.
11) The next meeting will be on Thursday, February 20th at 5.30
12) David Kanter reported that FCC Form 1210 concerning changes in the programming rates
has been submitted to Mass. Cable Commission. Cablevision asked for an"early
accounting" which means that they will go ahead with the increase and be prepared to
refund the money if their request is denied. The Commission has granted the request and
intends to have a joint hearing on Form 1210 and Form 1205 (which deals with equipment
rates) in April.
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