Orange County NC Website
2 <br />proposed agreement. Since scheduling conflicts caused the last negotiation session to take <br />place on Monday, August 29, County staff has not had the opportunity to fully vet the proposed <br />agreement with either the entire Cable Advisory Committee or The People's Channel prior to <br />the meeting on September 7, Both will, however, receive copies of this agenda abstract and <br />the proposed agreement, and they have been kept abreast of developments throughout the <br />negotiation process through e-mail and other communications. <br />CAC and TPC members and representatives will be invited to the BOCC meeting on September <br />7 to provide comments as may be desired, and a meeting of the CAC to review the highlights of <br />the proposed agreement in detail, with TPC in attendance, has been scheduled for October 5. <br />While not a formal member of the negotiation team, Bob Sepe has consulted with the County <br />on technical matters as needed. <br />11 <br />Section 5 A <br />Requires the grantee to extend services to any household where the number of occupied <br />homes, and homes for which certificates of occupancy been issued, equals at least 18 <br />homes per mile. <br />TWC objected to this density level under the proposed 2003 ordinance/agreement. Differences <br />have been resolved and agreement reached to a density of 18 households per mile. In the early <br />stages of franchise renewal negotiations back in the late 90s, density requirement proposals <br />ranged from a high of 30 homes per mile as in the Triangle J Model Ordinance to a low of 21.4 <br />as represented by the County. Agreement on 18 homes per street mile is a considerable win, <br />Section 14 A <br />Requires the grantee to designate a PEG (Public, Educational, Government) access <br />channel for sole use by the County for live and recorded telecasts of Board meetings and <br />other government access programming. <br />PEG access was another area of contention under the 2003 ordinance/agreement, TWC has <br />agreed to provide the County with its own digital channel on the cable system for PEG access, <br />Cable subscribers without the digit tier will be provided, upon request, with a free digital box to <br />enable them to view programming on the County access channel only. In addition to their ability <br />to view the new County access channel, cable subscribers in unincorporated Orange County <br />will retain their ability to view all other access channels they may presently have, such as <br />Channels 4, 8, and 18. <br />Section 14 B, C & E <br />Requires the grantee to design and install a system of equipment that would provide <br />signal transportation for County Board meeting telecasts on a designated PEG channel <br />that originate from Southern Human Services Center or the F. Gordon Battle Courtroom. <br />The BOCC has held a longstanding interest in the "capitalization" of County facilities used for <br />public meetings, particularly those of the legislative process. TWC has now agreed to purchase <br />and install the requisite capital equipment (cameras, monitors, scan converters, switchers, <br />recorders, etc.) to allow for live casting of BOCC meetings from both locations at their up-front