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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1996-09-19-CAC-min.pdf Minutes for September 19. 1996 Members present at the meeting: Stanton, Becker, Warshawer, Gharibian, Longcope, Bussgang, Cunha, Kanter, Buczkowski. David Green of Cablevision and guest, Nicolas Hay were also present. Julie Longcope was appointed secretary for the meeting and Steve Ellis is the complaint liaison for the month. 1) Transfer Hearing: Julian questioned if stipulations under the transfer allow us to withdraw the license if we find the condition of the company is not financially viable. Clarification from David Buczkowski to say that we can not withdraw the license. Violation of this may be a violation of the license, we do not know 2) Vote on recommendation of transfer Motion: Move that the committee recommend to the selectman to allow proposed transfer with lawyer prepared stipulations. Seconded and Approved. 3) 6/20/96 Minutes approved. 8/8/96 Minutes approved. 8/26/96 Minutes approved. 4) 9/4/96 errata Corrections to 8/26/96 License replaces 8/31/96 errata Corrections. David Green says they are with the legal department and being reviewed. David Green questions items 10 & 11 - doesn't think they are needed and the other items are mostly typos. The State Cable Commission called to ascertain status of the license. Copies have been sent and the final version needs to be sent to the authority 5) David Becker's report on assessing the equipment: Value needs to be ascertained. He spoke with school and library personnel. He feels that what is inside the building is not CATV concern but what connects the building is our concern. His concerns are upgrade of equipment and future plans. He feels management and planning that is currently in place not adequate. Martha Stanton said that the school is hiring a network manager but is not sure of the job description. Julie Longcope will set up a meeting with George Woodbury the Director of D.P W to discuss funds for assessing future needs. This will involve Julian Busgang, David Becker, and Steve Ellis as well. After we have assessed our resources and assets we can "throw the ball back in the Selectman's court" and tell them what we need. 6) The next meeting will be Thursday 10/17/96 at 5.30 P.M. to try to finalize positions etc. for the network recommendations for the Selectmen. 7) Jane received a briefing from MA Cable Commission on conflict of interest of people who want to be on CATV Committee. David Green's explanation is because of passage of Tel. Comm. Act., the commission want to be sure that vested interest parties are not involved in license renewal negotiations. 8) Suggested that everyone currently on this committee should review the Executive Summary which will be included in the packet for next meeting. 9) There are two members up for reappointment: Steve Ellis and Ted Mairson. 10) David Green Cablevision report: Cablevision will be telemarketing subscribers who have not turned in the old box by 11/1/96. He will report on the progress. The new box allows improved picture quality and channel mapping. If subscribers haven't swapped out the box they may not receive channels correctly in the future. There will also be a promotion at the end of October- a free weekend of Rainbow programming. However, Cablevision will need consent to turn on the channels; so the subscribers will need to call Cablevision. They will see if it works. Julian asked about the Nursing Home: David Green said a letter has been sent giving the options of cable in the Community Room. 11) Julian asked about requests for ESPN2 and International News. David Green's reply was that he doesn't know if they can add three channels and they are not getting enough calls for International News. Next month we can discuss ESPN2 and he can't say about the History Channel. 12)David Kanter reported that Drummer Boy engineering has been approved and the access agreement will be approved. 13) Kanter asked for discussion on recent reply from Audrey Hall, General Manger of Cablevision/Hudson in reference to Committee letter of July 1996 on the Gil Garber dispute. It was felt by a number of the members that Ms. Hall did not understand the Committee's response letter Her response appears to miss the point of the Committee letter Two members had not received copies of the Committee letter and felt they could not participate in the discussion. Gharibian agreed to fax it to them after the meeting. Members express disappointment in the response. David Green felt Ms. Hall's response was adequate. No further action on this issue was decided at this time. The meeting was adjourned at 7:25 p.m.