The Select Board held a public hearing on the town’s Comcast contract at Town Hall Monday night.
The Cable Advisory Committee met about a dozen times over the past few months to review the current contract, which expires June 2, and to discuss negotiations for the next contract.
Town Counsel Jeffrey Fialky said the committee was charged with determining whether the quality of services has been met and whether Comcast’s proposal is reasonable to meet the town’s future needs, among other charges.
“Under the law, we cannot negotiate rates,” Fialky said, adding the town cannot negotiate programming.
Committee member Carol Baribeau said the committee recommended rates stay the same and added that there were not a lot of additional requests.
“We were exploring things to enhance cable service in town,” said Baribeau. “There are not a lot of additional needs in town.”
Baribeau said the latest incident report from Comcast shows 73 outages in 2010.
“I think that’s good,” she said.
Selectman Russell Fox asked Comcast Government and Community Affairs Director Steven Fitzgibbons about an electronic billboard.
Fox said he wants Comcast to work with the town to provide the item in the center of town. He said it could be used to alert residents of emergencies and could also be used year-round to advertise town events.
Selectman Fred Arnold and Arthur Pinell both supported Fox’s request.
Fitzgibbons agreed to look into the town’s options.
He also responded to complaints from Janice LaFrance and Michelle Ackerman of Sodom Mountain Campground.
LaFrance said she has been trying to get Comcast services at her business for several years with no success. Last year, she said, she was finally able to negotiate a contract, which was signed in July. She said for some reason, Comcast came to her last December asking her to sign the contract again with the promise that she would have service by the time she opened for the season.
“We opened Friday and we still don’t have it,” said LaFrance. “I have seasonals who have paid upwards of $10,000 for the summer and they want to leave.”
LaFrance said she double checked that service would be connected before opening prior to printing brochures and was assured it would be up and running.
Fitzgibbons, who was familiar with the situation, said the problem is that Comcast needed permission from Western Massachusetts Electric and Verizon to use the poles to bring service to the campground.
“It’s now in their hands,” Fitzgibbons said.
Arnold asked Fitzgibbons if he could provide a status report.
“Their business is very important to us,” said Arnold.
