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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1998-06-16-CAC-min.pdf Cable Television and Communications Advisory Committee Minutes of June 16, 1998 meeting. Committee members present were David Buczkowski, Julian Bussgang, Steve Ellis, Jane Gharibian, David Kanter, Ted Mairson,Raul Marques and David Becker. Rob Travers attended for Cablevision. Three residents, Neal Birnberg, Tom Fortmann and Nicholas Hay, were present also. The agenda was accepted as published. The minutes of the last meeting were accepted after corrections were made(see summary at end of this report). David Kanter reported on the following: Negotiations with RCN(to establish them as a second licensee in Lexington) are continuing. We hope to be able to come to a general agreement soon, allowing us the confidence to request the Selectmen to schedule the required public hearing on RCN's suitability to be a licensee. Representatives of the Board of Appeals, the Planning Board, the Design Advisory Committee and our committee have met to look as a first draft of a set of instructions to go with the application for wireless antennas/towers. The group agreed that this would be a very practical way to introduce and enforce standards and criteria which supplement Article 15 of the Zoning Bylaw The first half of the instructions have been reviewed, and the remainder will be reviewed next week. At the NEXTEL tower hearing, the Board of Appeals approved a special permit for a wireless communications facility in the Follen Church tower. At the hearing,neighbors expressed concerns about health effects and possible lack of adequate notice of the meeting. In addition, attendees questioned whether the new bylaw had the proper emphasis, i.e., that it was primarily concerned with esthetics when it should put safety issues first. In fact, federal rules prohibit local authorities from enforcing emission rules more restrictive than those published by the FCC. Julian Bussgang discussed the proposed compliance hearing for Cablevision. Cablevision s current five-year license term began in September, 1996. By Federal requirements we must start negotiations on the next extension three years before the present term expires,which is this September. It would be very desirable to assess Cablevision's compliance with its obligations under the current license extension to set a basis for the new negotiations. Julian proposed that the committee develop a set of questions for Cablevision, for which they would prepare written responses, submitted in advance, for discussion at a public hearing. He suggested a hearing date in the first half of August, which seemed acceptable to Cablevision (they will be unavailable in the last two weeks of the month). It was moved and passed that we ask the Selectmen to initiate the process for scheduling a compliance hearing as soon as possible. Jane Gharibian noted that logistics of the hearing may be more difficult than usual, because the committee will not meet in July and August. Rob Travers reported that they have completed license renewal negotiations with Sudbury and have begun discussions with Bedford. Raul had nothing specific to report on access corporations. Peter Epstein has supplied a list of towns which have such corporations, and he will look into how some of them are organized and operate. Ted Mairson had nothing current to report on the technology study Jane Gharibian reported that a draft letter of support was sent to the Selectmen on the two pending legislative items dealing with Town control of zoning for towers and antennas. Steve Ellis reported that I-Net worked fairly well in the past month. There were two outages due to amplifiers filling with water. One ongoing problem is lack of remote control of the boot server, which is not located at the head end. Until this can be fixed(in budget for fiscal year starting July 1), requires that a person go to site of boot server when there is a problem. Steve also is concerned about effect of Cablevision's proposed cable plant upgrade on the I-Net. He expects at least a scheduling problem, with need to cut-over entire I-Net at once. Status of new connections: East Lexington branch of Cary Library will be on-line sometime this week; East Lexington fire station is next; Council on Aging deferred until Minuteman Technology School connection is stable. Ron Travers then covered several Cablevision-related topics: Question: Will system upgrade provide Internet service to the High School? Yes. Schedule? Currently in planning, but expect to upgrade 12-14 towns per year, total of 37 Expect upgrade completion in two and one-half years. Summary of the uneraded system 750 MHz hybrid (fiber/coaxial cable) system with status monitoring and power backup. Improved reliability and up to 110 channels. Will carry both analog and digital signals; converter boxes will,when necessary, change digital signals to analog for incompatible sets. Lexington has roughly 100 miles of cable, and will take about a one and one-half months to wire. When asked whether rates would go up,Rob thought that,because of price sensitivity, rates will not go up very much. He noted that Cablevision has completed rebuilds in Long Island, Connecticut and Cleveland. Cablevision's Lexington technical manager, Gary MacDonald, is leaving. Replacement is Carla Moore. Ron Rego is on temporary loan to Framingham. New equipment is coming into the studio,which will be closed to production for about a week in early August for installation. The Local Origination channel has a new look because a new character generator is in use. Cablevision will send a letter to the Town in August, notifying us of the renewal process start date. Tom Flaherty is taking over discussions with the Lexington Housing Authority about providing a group rate. The previous Cablevision representative has left the company A draft agreement with Drummer Boy Condominiums is being reviewed by Cablevision. Several members were surprised to hear that Cablevision does not distribute a channel lineup card for customers who use the A and B channels directly(no converter box). The company should notify these customers that channels 2 and 5, and possibly others, have been mapped to other channel addresses. The next meeting is scheduled for September 17 at 5 45 P.M. The meeting was adjourned at 7.00 P.M. Minutes submitted by David Becker, acting secretary ************ Summary of corrections to minutes of May 21, 1998 meeting The spelling of David Kanter's name should be corrected. NEXTEL s application for construction of a new tower has to be supplemented with additional information. The fifth paragraph should begin, "Raul Marques presented ", not "Ray" The fifth sentence of this paragraph should begin, "The majority agreed ",not"Everyone." The Massachusetts representative who authored the bill calling for changes to the way the Department of Utilities operates is named Parente,not Patrone. The next meeting of the Committee was scheduled for June 18,not June 8.