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HomeMy WebLinkAbout12/08/1997 Telecommunications Advisory Committee City of Apple Valley December 8, 1997 7:00 P.M. City Hall Minutes 1. Call to Order The meeting was called to order at 7:00 p.m. by Chairperson Bible. Members Present: Dale Rodell, Rollin Bible, Jerry Brown, Scott Hugstad-Vaa, David Westbrook Members Absent: John Magnusson Others Present: Charles Grawe, Darin Helgeson 2. Approval of Minutes of September 8, 1997 The minutes of September 8, 1997 were approved unanimous (motion by Mr. Rodell, second by Mr. Westbrook). 3. Franchise Renewal Update Mr. Grawe reported that he talked with Mr. Creighton earlier in the day and that Mr. Creighton indicated that the attorneys were making slow but forward process on the renewal. Mr. Grawe said that Mr. Creighton told him that while the City can not franchise data services, that it can require capacity and that it appeared that Marcus would have 4 fibers set aside for government use. Mr. Grawe said that Mr. Creighton and Ms. Bremer were scheduled for another meeting during the next week. Mr. Bible asked why the renewal process was not proceeding faster. Mr. Grawe replied that while he did not know all of the details, that from his talks with Mr. Creighton, he understood that there are many new concepts being explored through the cooperative process and that this has created some difficulties for the attorney’s when drafting the franchise document. Mr. Bible noted that at the previous meeting a mid October deadline had been set. Mr. Grawe responded that while the Committee had requested a mid- October to discuss a largely agreed to franchise document, the attorneys were not ready to make a joint presentation at that time. Mr. Bible asked if the attorneys would be finished by the end of 1997. Mr. Grawe said he did not think it would be finished that quickly. Mr. Bible asked if any Committee members had suggestions. Mr. Hugstad-Vaa suggested setting another deadline. There was brief discussion over whether a deadline would be effective. Mr. Bible said he would like to schedule another meeting for rmid-January with the attorneys, even if the franchise is not complete. Mr. Grawe said he would set up the meeting and request both attorneys to attend. 4. System Upgrade Update Mr. Helgeson displayed a map showing existing fiber drops, fiber drops in progress, and fiber drops to be made in the Spring of 1998. Mr. Helgeson said that the proposed system will have 27 nodes, each servicing an average of 500-600 homes. He said that about 30- 40% of the proposed fiber is already in place and that he expects the eastern section of the City to be activated by mid-March of 1998. He explained that the existing system is “tree and branch” design, forcing the upgrade to begin on the edges of the service district, moving inward. Mr. Helgeson proposed holding a meeting at the Marcus facility so that the Committee members could view the new headend equipment. Mr. Bible asked how many new channels would be added. Mr. Helgeson responded that around 18 analog channels would be added, creating between 80 and 82 total channels. Mr. Bible asked if the new headend would be digital. Mr. Helgeson said it would be a digital/analog hybrid in order to accommodate existing signal providers. Mr. Bible asked if digital compression would be used. Mr. Helgeson responded that digital compression will be incorporated as it becomes financially feasible. Mr. Bible asked if the system will be capable of supporting cable modems. Mr. Helgeson responded that the system is designed to support cable modems and that they are being tested by Marcus in the Fort Worth, Texas area. Mr. Bible asked what changes Marcus is proposing to public access. Mr. Helgeson responded that the new system will only have 1 government channel per city. Further, he said Marcus does not wish to manage the public access studio anymore. Mr. Helgeson said that the crews are working swiftly to complete the fiber installation and that some right of way restoration may not be completed until spring. He said that they have already contracted for sod for next year and are trying to stay in the street right of way as much as possible in the residential areas. Mr. Bible asked if the Police Facility wiring is complete. Mr. Helgeson responded yes. Mr. Westbrook asked if Marcus publicized the upgrade. Mr. Helgeson responded yes Marcus did alert residents when construction began. He explained that as the upgrade takes place, service is typically severed for one day while the new equipment is turned on. He said that residents are notified on the day that their service is changed. Mr. Bible asked if the new channel line up has been established. Mr. Helgeson said that the lineup will be established in the next few weeks and that BET and the Hispanic Channel were finalists for new additions. Mr. Bible asked Mr. Helgeson to investigate corporate plans for cable modems for the January meeting. 5. Discuss Proposed Meeting with Lakeville Cable Committee Mr. Grawe distributed an invitation from the City of Lakeville for the Apple Valley Telecommunications Advisory Committee to meet with the Lakeville Cable TV Board on Thursday, December 18 at 6:00 p.m. at Lakeville City Hall to brainstorm issues related to public access. Mr. Grawe said he talked with Mr. Creighton about the proposed franchise to gain more information about public access issues. He said that Mr. Creighton had told him that Marcus would like to get out of operating the public access facility currently located at the Marcus building in Lakeville. Mr. Grawe said that Mr. Creighton explained that Marcus would like to institute a pass through charge on customer’s bills to raise money for the individual cities to manage public access. There was a brief discussion over the definition of a pass through charge. Mr. Grawe also said that Mr. Creighton believes that the City can take the money from the pass through and make decisions about how the money is spent on PEG in general, including government and school channels, not just the public access channel. Mr. Grawe said that Mr. Creighton advised that the Committee have discussions about how the money should be allocated before making any commitments about the provision of public access. Mr. Grawe further stated that Mr. Creighton indicated that Marcus would provide five channels to the City for PEG access. Mr. Bible asked how the City would use five channels. Mr. Grawe responded that the City government channel would continue and that there may be options to provide multiple school channels to serve each of the high schools. Mr. Helgeson was asked if he could confirm the number of channels offered, but he could not. There was brief discussion about how five channels could be provided. Mr. Grawe said he would talk with Mr. Creighton and prepare a memo for the Committee to be distributed before the meeting to clarify the issues. Mr. Grawe also said Mr. Creighton was clear that the Committee should take no actions at the meeting and should in no way make any commitments to the City of Lakeville regarding public access. 6. Franchise Fee Calculation Mr. Grawe gave a brief explanation of a court case clarifying the calculation of franchise fees. 7. Equipment Upgrade Update Mr. Grawe briefly went over the list of proposed equipment. Mr. Bible asked Mr. Grawe to research the costs and benefits of purchasing a digital camera and a digital mixer. Mr. Bible asked if Mr. LaComb could present a detailed proposal highlighting the uses and benefits of a digital camera to the Apple Valley programming. He also asked if Mr. LaComb could line-item his production costs so that the Committee could analyze the costs of not having digital editing equipment. Mr. Grawe said he would relay the message. Mr. Bible suggested that City Council and staff carefully view a demonstration of the proposed equipment to make sure that the necessary detail can be viewed through the LCD monitors. Mr. Bible asked Mr. Grawe to set up a demonstration meeting for Council and staff before the Committee makes a recommendation on the equipment. Mr. Bible was concerned about the equipment for the conference room and noted that the resolution may not be satisfactory for the intended purposes. He also noted that since the equipment is not related to cablecasting, funding may come from sources outside of the franchise capital grant. 8. Review Complaint Log Mr. Grawe noted that there had been an usual number of complaints on billing and speculated that there may have been a problem with the billing process. Mr. Bible said that he thought one of the cracked driveway complaints had been satisfied. Both Mr. Bible and Mr. Helgeson said they would confirm that the complaint had been settled. 9. Other a) Mr. Rodell reported that he attended half of the MACTA conference and that the public policy discussions were very good. b) Mr. Rodell expressed his displeasure with the removal of the Frontier drop boxes. c) Mr. Bible asked that meetings be recablecast on a more regular basis. 10. Adjourn Mr. Brown moved, seconded by Mr. Rodell to adjourn the meeting. Motion carried unanimous. The meeting was adjourned at 8:30 P.M..