[HISTORY: Adopted by the Board of Supervisors of Edgmont
Township 8-7-1984 by Ord. No. 84. Amendments noted where applicable.]
This chapter shall be known and may be cited as the "Edgmont
Township Community Antenna Television Ordinance."
Upon application duly made, the Township of Edgmont may grant
the nonexclusive right to erect, maintain and operate television transmission
and distribution facilities and additions thereto in, under, over,
along, across and upon the streets, lanes, avenues, sidewalks, alleys
and other public places in the Township of Edgmont (hereinafter referred
to as "the Township") for the purpose of transmission and distribution
of audio and visual impulses and television energy and digital information
with the laws and regulations of the United States of America, of
the State of Pennsylvania, and of the Township. The Township may promulgate
a form for the making of application pursuant hereto, and in the event
that such a form is promulgated, then application shall be made only
on such form. Any right granted pursuant to this chapter shall be
conditioned on the faithful performance and observance of the conditions,
regulations and reservations herein specified and shall further be
conditioned upon the prompt payment of the amounts provided for herein.
Whenever used in this chapter, the word "television" shall mean
a system for transmission of audio signals, visual images, and/or
digital information by means of electrical impulses.
A. To the extent possible, all facilities erected, maintained or operated
pursuant to this chapter shall be attached to poles already in existence
in the Township. To the extent that existing poles are insufficient
for the purposes hereof, or if anyone being granted the right hereunder
(hereinafter referred to as "licensee") is unable to negotiate agreements
satisfactory to licensee providing for use of existing poles, the
licensee shall have the right to erect and maintain its own poles
as necessary for the construction and maintenance of its television
distribution system subject to the approval of the location of such
poles by the Township Engineer; provided, however, that the approval
of the Township Engineer shall not be granted for the installation
of such poles when, in the professional opinion of the Township Engineer,
the installation of such new transmission facilities underground is
feasible, considering engineering criteria only; and provided further
that all residential areas of the Township which are now or in the
future served by underground electrical utilities shall be served
only by underground transmission and distribution facilities. Otherwise,
the approval of the Township Engineer shall not be unreasonably withheld.
B. The licensee shall have the right, authority, power and privilege
to attach any of its system facilities to any existing or future poles,
towers or other electrical facilities owned by Township in a manner
which will not interfere with the use of such poles, towers and other
electrical facilities owned by the Township, provided that no such
attachment shall take place unless 72 hours' prior notice has been
given to Township and Township has failed to object to such attachment. The
Township shall not unreasonably object to any such attachment.
C. The Township hereby states its desire that all holders of public
licenses and franchises within the corporate limits of the Township
shall cooperate with every licensee hereunder to allow usage of existing
poles and pole line facilities wherever possible and wherever such
usage does not interfere with the normal operation of said poles and
pole lines so that the number of new or additional poles constructed
in the Township shall be minimized.
D. Each licensee shall extend to the Township, free of any expense,
joint use of any and all poles owned by any licensee or any proper
municipal purpose insofar as may be accomplished without interference
with the use and enjoyment of the licensee's own wires and fixtures.
The Township shall hold each licensee harmless from any and all action,
causes of action or damage caused by any action of the Township in
placing wires or appurtenances upon the poles of the licensee.
E. Insofar as it is within the power of the Township to grant the following
right, the approval of any application made hereunder shall grant
to licensee whose application is approved, the authority to trim trees
upon and overhanging all streets, alleys, easements, sidewalks, and
other places within the Township, but only to the extent necessary
to prevent the branches of such trees from coming into contact with
the facilities of the licensee.
F. Each licensee whose application is approved pursuant to this chapter
shall construct an all-bands system capable of providing 52 channels
of television reception and FM radio to the licensee's subscribers,
and installation and maintenance of equipment shall be such that standard
color signals shall be transmitted to subscribers.
A. All structures, lines and equipment erected by any licensee within
the Township shall be located so as not to interfere with the use
of streets, alleys, easements and other public ways and places or
with the rights and reasonable convenience of property owners, and
each licensee shall comply with all ordinances of the Township now
or hereafter in force.
B. In case of any disturbance of pavement, sidewalk, driveway or other
surface, the licensee shall, at its own expense, and in a manner approved
by Township, remove, replace and restore all pavement, sidewalk, driveway
or surface so disturbed to as good condition as before such disturbance.
C. In the event Township shall at any time lawfully elect to alter or
change any street, alley or other public way requiring the relocation
of any of the facilities of any licensee, licensee, upon reasonable
notice, shall remove and relocate any such facilities at licensee's
own expense.
D. Whenever it shall be necessary for any licensee to raise or lower
its lines to permit the moving of any machinery or equipment or any
building or other structure, the licensee shall accomplish the same
upon the request of any person lawfully entitled to move such machinery
equipment or building or other structure. The actual expense of raising
or lowering or temporarily removing the licensee's lines shall be
paid by the person requesting the same, and the licensee shall have
the right to require payment in advance of the reasonably estimated
cost of such raising, lowering or temporary removal; provided, however,
that if the raising or temporary removal shall be necessary for Township
purposes and shall be done at the request of the Township, then such
raising, lowering or temporary removal shall be accomplished by the
licensee at no charge to the Township.
E. All poles, lines, structures and other facilities of the licensee
in, on, over or under the streets, sidewalks, alleys, easements and
other public grounds or places within the Township shall be maintained
at all times by the licensee in a safe and appropriate condition.
F. Each licensee shall furnish, free of charge, at least one service
distribution connection to each school, fire station, police station,
Township administration building, and public library located within
the service area within the Township and along any of the licensee's
transmission line routes and shall make a channel available for public
use and for use by persons and organizations in the Township and in
the school district of which the Township is a part.
A. Each licensee shall, at all times, be subject to such regulation
as the Township shall have in force or shall hereafter lawfully enact,
either by ordinance or resolution or otherwise; provided, however,
that nothing herein contained shall be deemed to render any licensee
a public utility except as may be otherwise provided by the laws of
the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
B. Each licensee shall maintain and operate its system and render efficient
service in accordance with such rules and regulations as are now or
hereafter established by the Township.
C. Whenever it is necessary to shut off or interrupt service for the
purpose of making repairs, installations or adjustments, the licensee
shall do so at such time as will cause the least amount of inconvenience
to its customers, consistent with the needs and requirements of the
licensee.
D. Each licensee shall maintain telephone service, which shall be toll
free to the caller for calls originating from within Edgmont Township,
for the purpose of receiving inquiries and complaints from the licensee's
customers and from the general public. Each licensee shall provide
sufficient maintenance personnel to respond to routine service calls
within 24 hours during the period from 9:00 a.m. through 5:00 p.m.,
Mondays through Fridays, except in the case of major outages due to
storms, civil unrest or acts of God.
Each licensee shall, as a condition of approval of its application,
enter into an agreement with the Township saving Township harmless
from any and all loss sustained by the Township by reason of any suit,
judgment, execution, claim or demand whatsoever resulting from any
action on the part of the licensee in the construction, operation
or maintenance of its television system. For this purpose, each licensee
shall carry property damage and public liability insurance with an
insurance company qualified to do business in the Commonwealth of
Pennsylvania. Each licensee shall carry at least the following minimum
amounts of insurance: liability owing to damage to property, $500,000
per accident; against liability owing to injury to or death of persons,
$1,000,000 per person and $5,000,000 per accident; provided that the
Township may require increases in such minimum amount from time to
time to provide for inflation. Each licensee shall also carry workmen's
compensation insurance and other such insurance as may be required
by the laws of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in such amounts as
may be required. The Township shall notify a licensee within 30 days
after the presentation of any claim or demand, either by suit or otherwise,
made against the Township on account of any activity as aforesaid
on the part of any licensee, provided that the failure of the Township
to notify the licensee shall not relieve the licensee of its obligations
hereunder unless the licensee is actually prejudiced as a result of
the failure of the Township to notify it as to any claim or demand.
As a condition of the approval of any application hereunder, the Township
may require the posting of bond, with such surety as the Township
deems appropriate, in form satisfactory to the Township and in such
amount as the Township deems satisfactory to guarantee that all undertaking
and obligations of each licensee pursuant to this chapter shall be
performed in a timely manner.
The licensee shall have the right to charge and collect compensation
from all subscribers to whom it shall furnish service, but the licensee
shall not as to rate, charges, service, facilities, rules and regulations,
or any other respect, make or grant any preference or advantage to
any customer or subject any customer to any prejudice or disadvantage,
but nothing herein contained shall be deemed to prohibit the establishment
of a graduated scale of charges and classified rate schedules, provided
that the classification of customers shall be reasonable and any customer
coming within a particular classification shall be entitled to the
same rates as any other customer coming within that classification.
Rates shall be the same for all classifications of customers served
by licensee from similar facilities. Nothing herein contained shall
prevent any licensee from providing a preferential rate or free service
to the Township or for any public purpose.
Rights granted to any licensee hereunder shall take effect and
be in full force from and after the date upon which each application
is approved by the Township. The rights granted hereunder shall continue
in full force and effect for an initial period of not less than 15
years from the date of application approval, and each licensee whose
application is approved shall have the right to renew the rights granted
hereunder for an additional term of 15 years under the terms hereof
from and after the expiration date of the initial fifteen-year period.
The right to renew for the additional period shall be exercised by
the licensee in the following manner only: by giving the Township
notice, in writing, of the licensee's election to exercise the option,
which notice shall be given not less than six months nor more than
two years prior to the expiration of the initial term granted hereunder;
such notice to be either personally served or mailed, certified or
registered mail, return receipt requested, to the Township at the
Township's administrative offices.
If any licensee should violate any of the terms, conditions or provisions of this chapter, or if the licensee should fail to comply with any lawful provision of any ordinance of the Township regulating the use by any licensee of streets, alleys, easements or public ways of the Township, or if any licensee should violate any other lawful rule or regulation applicable to it and continue to violate the same for a period of 30 days after licensee shall have been notified, in writing, by the Township to desist from such violation, the licensee may, at Township's option, be deemed to have forfeited and annulled all rights and privileges granted hereunder. If the rights granted hereunder are forfeited pursuant to this §
137-10, the licensee may dispose of its property located within the Township in any lawful manner.
In order to render the service contemplated by this chapter,
each licensee may require service from a point-to-point microwave
service common carrier licensed by the Federal Communications Commission.
Within 120 days after approval of its application hereunder, the licensee
shall submit an order for service with a qualified carrier. If the
licensee shall not, within six months from the date the qualified
carrier completes construction of the facilities necessary to serve
the licensee, have commenced the installation of its television distribution
system, or in the event the licensee does not place an order for service
with a qualified carrier, as required above, the approval of the licensee's
application may be revoked and cancelled by the Township. In any event,
if the licensee shall not, within two years from the date of approval
of its application, have begun to supply its television distribution
service to residences outlined on the attached service area map, either
with cables or microwave distribution system, within two years from
the date the first customer in the Township is provided such service,
the approval of the licensee's application may be revoked and cancelled
by the Township.
A. Each licensee shall pay to the Township an amount which, when added
to the amount of all taxes, licenses, fees or impositions levied or
imposed by the Township upon each licensee or upon its property or
operations for the preceding calendar year, will equal 3% of the gross
service revenues received by the licensee from its operations within
the Township. Gross service revenues as used herein shall mean the
gross annual amount of regular monthly fees paid by subscribers within
the service area of the Township for basic cable services. The payments
required hereunder shall be due within 90 days after the end of each
calendar year.
B. Each licensee shall keep records of account showing the date and
amount of all payments received. The duly authorized agent of the
Township shall have the right, at its expense, to inspect and audit
the licensee's records of gross revenues of any licensee at any reasonable
time.
C. Nothing herein contained shall be construed as requiring any licensee
to pay the Township any portion of the revenue derived from the sale
of its services by the licensee to customers residing outside the
corporate limits of the Township; provided, however, that upon annexation
to the Township of any territory not now within the corporate limits
of the Township, the portion of the licensee's facilities that may
be located within such annexed territory and upon the streets, alleys
and public grounds thereof shall thereafter be subject to all of the
terms of this chapter.
No licensee hereunder shall engage in the business of sale or
repair of television receivers owned by its subscribers, nor will
any licensee be responsible for the operating condition of said receiver.
Any service furnished by any licensee to a subscriber pursuant to
this chapter shall terminate at the point of connection of the licensee's
facilities to the subscribers' receiver.
Nothing herein contained shall be deemed to render any right
granted hereunder to be exclusive to any licensee.
The rights granted hereunder may not be assigned or transferred
by any licensee, except with the approval of the Township first had
and obtained, in writing, which approval may be withheld only for
good cause shown, but as a condition of granting approval of transfer
or assignment, the Township may require the proposed transferee or
assignee to submit reasonable information concerning itself, to submit
the same information as would be required in connection with making
a new application hereunder, and to execute an appropriate instrument
signifying the acceptance by the transferee or assignee of all of
the terms and conditions of this chapter and agreeing to perform same.
[Added at time of adoption of Code (see Ch. 1, General Provisions,
Art. I)]
Any person who violates or permits a violation of this chapter
shall, upon being found liable therefor in a civil enforcement proceeding
commenced by the Township before a Magisterial District Judge, pay
a fine of not more than $600, plus all court costs, including reasonable
attorneys' fees, incurred by the Township in the enforcement of this
chapter. No judgment shall be imposed until the date of the determination
of the violation by the Magisterial District Judge. If the defendant
neither pays nor timely appeals the judgment, the Township may enforce
the judgment pursuant to the applicable Rules of Civil Procedure.
Each day a violation exists shall constitute a separate offense. Further,
the appropriate officers or agents of the Township are hereby authorized
to seek equitable relief, including injunction, to enforce compliance
herewith.