The purpose of this article is to:
A.
Document the establishment of the Standish Cable Television
Advisory Committee and define its purpose, membership and mission;
document the appointment requirements of the Regional Saco River Cable
Committee (hereinafter referred to as "SRCC") and the Town's appointees
to this Committee as the Town's representatives, who together are
responsible to the Town Council for ensuring the legal and proper
execution of all terms and provisions of the cable franchise agreement
which exists between the Town of Standish and the cable operator.
B.
Define the role of the Town of Standish as one of
the governmental components of the PEG (public, educational and governmental)
access users of the channels that have been allocated for this purpose
pursuant to the Standish Franchise Agreement dated June 22, 1998,
and L.D. 1045, The State of Maine Act Concerning the Regulation of
Cable Television.
[Amended 10-12-2004 by Ord. No. 133-04]
C.
Define the relationship between the Town of Standish,
SRCC, the Towns of Buxton, Hollis, Waterboro, Limerick, and Limington
(hereinafter referred to as the "Saco River Cable System Towns"),
the cable television operator and other users of the government access
channel.
[Amended 10-12-2004 by Ord. No. 133-04]
D.
Recognize the requirement for a municipally appointed
group of citizens to jointly represent the Towns connected to the
Saco River Cable System in cable television matters related to the
establishment and monitoring of the cable television franchise agreement.
As such, the Town of Standish hereby provides for the appointment
of two representatives to the SRCC, one primary and one alternate
member, who shall be appointed at large by the Standish Town Council.
A.
Two members of the public shall be appointed at large
and together with the Saco River Cable Committee, Town Attorney and
the Town Manager shall be responsible to the Town Council for ensuring
the legal and proper execution of all terms and provisions of the
cable franchise agreement which exists between the Town of Standish
and the cable operator. Meetings of the Committee shall be held at
the request of the Chairman of the Committee or at the request of
a municipal representative from one of the Saco River Cable System
Towns through the Committee Chair. A videotaped or written record
of each meeting shall be kept and submitted to the Town Manager and
Town Council, upon request.
B.
The primary appointee or, in his/her absence, the
alternate appointee shall keep the Town Manager advised of any pending
activities of the cable operator or regional issues with the other
Saco River Cable System Towns which may have an impact upon the residents
of the Town of Standish or its officials.
C.
Duties and responsibilities. The appointees to the
SRCC are responsible for providing the citizens of Standish and their
elected officials with the following services:
(1)
To assist in the establishment and monitoring of the cable franchise agreement to ensure compliance by the cable operator with the terms and provisions thereof. (Reference: See § 115-9, Cable Television Franchising)
[Amended 10-12-2004 by Ord. No. 133-04]
(2)
To provide an informational resource to the residents
of the Town of Standish and its officials in any discussion involving
the requirements of the franchise agreement, such as line extensions,
service outages, poor signal quality, reverse feed connections, etc.
(3)
To act as liaison between the citizens of the Town
of Standish or its officials and the cable operator to assist in the
resolution of complaints, disputes or questions that may arise regarding
the services or operation provided by the cable operator.
(4)
To relieve the Town Manager and other Town officials
of the day-to-day obligations associated with interfacing between
the residents of Standish and the cable operator.
(5)
To advise and counsel the Town Manager and any other
designated Town official of any pending or existing policy, service
or rate changes that may be forthcoming from the cable operator or
any issues regarding the regional Community Television Center that
may impact the Town or its residents.
[Amended 10-12-2004 by Ord. No. 133-04]
(6)
To provide the Town of Standish with the expertise
and technical assistance required to broadcast municipal events on
a contractual or volunteer basis. Such events may include, but need
not be limited to, official meetings, workshops and public hearings
of or sponsored by the Standish Town Council or any duly appointed
board.
[Amended 10-12-2004 by Ord. No. 133-04]
A.
The Town Manager is responsible for procuring such
equipment and supplies as are required to meet the operational needs
of the Town to be able to televise and replay any municipal meeting
or event that is deemed necessary by the Town Manager and/or the Town
Council. The procurement and maintenance of such equipment shall be
subject to available funds, budgetary approval and to existing purchasing
policies established by the Town.
B.
All equipment, materials or supplies donated to the
Town of Standish or purchased by the Town of Standish shall become
the property of the Town.
C.
The Town Manager shall be responsible for the primary custody of all said property, materials and supplies and shall provide, by budget recommendation and approval, adequate facilities and moneys for the storage, maintenance, repair and testing of the television equipment and systems which shall be accessible to a designated Town employee or contractor in connection with the taping and/or broadcast of municipal events as described in § 3-53A. The only exception to this policy shall be in the event that the cable franchise requires the cable operator to provide said maintenance, repair and testing of the television equipment described above.
D.
The Town Manager shall ensure that all equipment of
value is incorporated within the insurance coverage of the Town and
that there is appropriate protection provided by the Town insuring
Town employees or contractors while taping or broadcasting designated
municipal meetings or events on behalf of the Town.
A.
The Regional Community Television center in Hollis
has provisions for public service announcements for nonprofit public
access users and for municipalities serviced by the Saco River Cable
System. Forms for describing the announcements are available from
and should be mailed to: Saco River Community Television, 564 Plains
Road, Hollis, Maine 04092. The phone number is 727-5702 and the fax
number is 727-5902 and the e-mail address is srctv.net.
[Amended 10-12-2004 by Ord. No. 133-04]
B.
Official announcements regarding Standish municipal
events to be placed on the regional government or public access bulletin
boards shall be approved by the Town Manager or designee.
A.
This article does not describe or infringe upon the
use of the Regional Public Access Channel by any group or citizen
who wishes to voice an opinion or provide programming of local community
interest pursuant to the policies of the Regional Community Television
Center. Public access is recognized by the Town of Standish as an
entity separate from governmental access, as is educational access,
pursuant to the provisions of the 1984 Cable Act and 30-A M.R.S.A.
§§ 3008 and 3010, as may be amended from time to time.
[Amended 10-12-2004 by Ord. No. 133-04]
B.
Notwithstanding the above, however, use of municipal
television equipment, as described above, for public access or educational
purposes may be provided at the discretion of the Town Council and
the Town Manager.
A.
The Cable Television Advisory Committee was established
by the Standish Selectmen in October of 1982, in response to a need
for public input in the bid selection process for a cable television
system. As a result, the decision was made to join with three other
towns and award the franchise to Saco River Cable Company, then a
division of the Saco River Telephone Company. Two other adjoining
towns subsequently awarded their franchise to Saco River and the resulting
network became known as the "Saco River Cable System." The six towns
on the system are Standish, Hollis, Buxton, Limerick, Limington and
Waterboro. They are all serviced by the same head end, or signal origination
point, in Bar Mills and for many years shared the same PEG access
channel (number 3), which was originally known as the "Town Crier"
and is now SRC-TV, the Saco River Community Television.
[Amended 10-12-2004 by Ord. No. 133-04]
B.
The term "PEG" is the abbreviation for "public, educational
and governmental" access, which was defined in the Cable Act of 1984.
Basically, this Act authorizes but does not require local cable operators
to dedicate channels for public, educational and governmental access.
The licensee (Town) also can enforce franchise provisions which require
the cable operator to support this access monetarily and allocate
part or all of the local franchise fees for the support of PEG access.
In addition the State of Maine enacted a law (L.D. 1045) in June of
1989 which requires all cable franchises in the state to "include
provision for access to, and facilities to make use of, one or more
local public, educational and governmental access channels...."
[Amended 10-12-2004 by Ord. No. 133-04]
C.
In December 1987, the Saco River Cable Company sold
the franchise of the six towns to United Video Cablevision. In 1990
the Saco River Cable Committee was formed as a collaborative effort
by the six towns to be able to deal effectively in matters of customer
complaints with the new cable operator. United Video sold the franchise
to FrontierVision LLC in 1994, who subsequently sold the franchise
to Adelphia Communications in 1999. As a result of a franchise agreement
that was signed with FrontierVision in 1998, the system was upgraded
to a 750Mhz fiber-to-feeder architecture which is capable of handling
several hundred digital channels, digital cable modem services and
an interactive I-NET connecting all municipal buildings, schools and
libraries in the six-town region.
