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Hooksett Public TV vote again

Hooksett Editor — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 02:19:00 GMT

BY GINGER KOZLOWSKI

A move is on to get a public access cable TV channel started in Hooksett, with supporters hoping the vote will be in their favor this year, unlike last year.

For decades, Comcast cable TV subscribers have paid a small franchise fee in their bills, which is sent to the town. It’s money meant for the town to be able to run a public TV channel, but because there is no such channel, the money has gone into the town’s general fund. That amounts to more than $100,000 a year.

On voting day in Hooksett, which is May 12, Warrant Article 20 will ask for those fees to be put toward a public access channel in a special fund, rather than the general fund.

According to a flier Hooksett resident David Pearl has distributed, a television studio could be set up at the Hooksett Town Hall, and meeting rooms at the building could be rigged with cameras and other necessary equipment which would allow meetings to be shown.

Other uses for the publicaccess channel include local programming about Hooksett, like sporting events, concerts and plays. Emergency announcements and instructions would be made on the channel. A message board could list upcoming town events and public information. Schools could even contribute by producing programming. The flier quotes several officials as being in support of the article.

Dr. Charles “Phil” Littlefield, SAU 15 superintendent, is quoted as saying, “The development of community-based television, among other things, provides Hooksett with the opportunity to bring government into every living room. It is a wonderful way to bring democracy to the people.”

Bill Gahara of HYAA supports the idea, as does Hooksett Town Councilor Paul Loiselle. Fire Chief Michael Williams says it would be a great tool for the Hooksett Fire Department.

“Communicating with our residents through television would be a great way for us to keep the residents informed about all Fire Department fundtions,” according to the flier.

While Pearl operates his own video business, he would not run the public access channel.

“First of all,” he said, “although I operate a video business, I don’t have a background in community TV. Second, I plan to devote all of my time to Spotlight Video. I would not rule out serving on a board, as a citizen. Pearl said the Town Council would be charged with creating a board to oversee the operation of the public channel.

“Some have mentioned that the warrant doesn’t address all of the specifics,” said Pearl. “That is because we are voting on creating community TV, not trying to set forth exactly how it would run. Should it pass, the people of Hooksett or their representatives will have to decide all of the details.”

Last year’s vote on the same topic failed 551-442. The 2 percent charge on each cable bill has continued to go into the general fund to help offset taxes.

Council considers removing Comcast fee

Hooksett Editor — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 19:52:00 GMT

BY LAUREN SAUSSER

Since the town of Hooksett renewed its contract with Comcast in 2004, cable subscribers in Hooksett pay about $100,000 in franchise fees every year to have public-access television to cover various town meetings.

But since no public access television currently exists, the Hooksett Town Council is debating the option of abolishing the franchise fee altogether.

“I think it’s an example of a hidden tax,” said Town Councilor David Ross at a recent meeting. “It should be something that’s put before the voters to see what they have to think.”

Comcast currently bills its cable subscribers 3 percent monthly, including in that bill a line item labeled as a franchise fee. In full, those fees are collected and deposited in the town’s general fund account, amounting to about $100,000 a year.

If the Town Council eventually decides to cease collecting the franchise fees, another franchise fee could not be reinstated until Comcast renegotiates its town contract in 2012. That pushes the possibility of installing public access television to at least that year.

Town Councilor Nancy VanScoy said she had not personally resolved the issue yet but said she understands it is something that merits discussion.

“I do think it’s important that we talk about it,” VanScoy said. “I’m waiting to be convinced one way or the other. Both sides have to be looked at. If we have this fee, what is the purpose of it?”

Town Councilor Jim Gorton, also a Comcast subscriber, said he does not mind paying the nominal fee each month and gathers that other cable subscribers probably feel similarly.

“I knew about the fee and it doesn’t bother me,” Gorton said. “The subscriber knowingly agrees to pay that fee. I really don’t think they’re hidden at all. They are spelled out pretty clearly in your contract.”

The many members of the council have voiced their desire to see public access television installed in the town, but no action has been taken on the issue.

“I don’t think people mind paying the tax if it were for public television,” Town Councilor Mike Pischetola said. “But it’s just going into the general fund.”

Earlier this year, voters were asked whether to establish cable-access TV but not whether to remove the franchise fee. The warrant article failed 551-442 in the May 13 vote, and the public-access TV committee disbanded.

Had it passed, committee chairman Peter Farwell said the station would have been located at old the Village School, now the Hooksett Town Hall. Fiber optic cables would run from buildingl up to the Comcast head station in Manchester.

Buying and installing the cables alone was expected to run around $30,000, Farwell said. Additional equipment needed to run the station was estimated at around $27,000, rounding out the one-time expenses at close to $60,000 for the first year.

Two part-time positions, a technician and a programming coordinator, would have added an extra $25,000 to $30,000 combined which would be a yearly expense and would have become part of the station’s operating budget.

– Ginger Kozlowski contributed to this story.

TV group disbands

Hooksett Editor — Wed, 21 May 2008 18:19:00 GMT

BY JENN McDOWELL

Hooksett resident Peter Farwell informed the Town Council at their meeting on Wednesday, May 14, that the Public Access TV Committee has disbanded.

The ballot question asking voters’ permission to establish a public access television program in Hooksett failed in a 551-442 vote. Farwell, who headed the committee and researched public access stations in surrounding towns, said town councilors who supported the station, including Pat Rueppel (District 1) and David Ross (District 4), thanked the committee for their efforts.

Farwell said he’s convinced, based on the vote, that the town does not want a public access station at this time, and as of right now does not plan on continuing the fight to bring it to Hooksett.

“It was a shock because every place we went, every organization we talked to had been very, very positive,” Farwell said. “Mr. Longfellow indicated that he didn’t think the town wanted it, and I tipped my hat to him because he was right,” Farwell said about the sentiments of District 6 Councilor George Longfellow.

Longfellow and District 2 Councilor Jason Hyde have expressed their dissent against bringing public access to the town, saying it would be of little use as it was presented.

Hyde, who also works for Comcast, said the data for Comcast cable users shows that virtually no one watches public access channels. Money would be better spent, he said, on streaming town and school meetings as well as community events and postings online.

Some Hooksett residents have pointed out that the franchise fees attached to cable users’ Comcast bills, which currently go into the town coffers to offset taxes, constitute an unfair tax because not everyone pays the fees.

About three-quarters of the town’s homes are hooked up to Comcast. The town adds the franchise fees to the bills to the tune of about 2 percent of the overall bill, and collects around $100,000 per year in those fees, Town Administrator David Jodoin has said.

“I feel that it’s an unfair tax,” said David Pearl, the creator of the “Hooksett Issues” Google discussion group where the campaign for public access began, and who was also active in trying to bring Hooksett its own station.

The Town Council is authorized to remove the franchise fees from the bill at any time, according to correspondence from Comcast.

The problem, Pearl said, is that if the committee plans to regroup and go for another ballot question next year to establish public access, the fees would likely have to stay on Comcast bills for now. If they are taken off, a public access article would likely not pass, as the fees would have to be reinstituted to pay for the station setup and operating costs.

“We’re kind of in decisionmaking mode,” Pearl said. “I’m now in a position of possibly supporting something I don’t believe in to get something I want.”

The $1 line item the Town Council put into the town’s operating budget to allow them to transfer money into a fund for public access in case the ballot question passed remains, leaving the matter open as far as authority to transfer money is concerned.

Pearl said he’s heard from many Hooksett residents who didn’t even know about the franchise fees added to their cable bills until after the election.

He also got feedback from residents who said they were not pleased with the vague plan the committee had for the public access station, which did not include any hard, reliable cost estimates or specific plans for how the station would be run. “At least the election gave more publicity to it,” Pearl said.

Bedford Community TV an example for Hooksett

Hooksett Editor — Wed, 07 May 2008 18:34:00 GMT

BY STEPHEN BEALE

Missed that big debate at the Town Council meeting? Or perhaps the Planning Board hearing where a developer explained what he is going to do in your neighborhood?

Now you can watch those meetings and more – in fact, all of the town and school government meetings in Bedford – online at the Web site for the community cable television program. The town now offers video on demand service at www.bedfordtv.com, in addition to channels 16 and 22 which Comcast cable subscribers in Bedford can watch.

The service, which became available at the end of April, took about a year to plan and implement, according to Bill Jennings, the station manager.

“What we wanted to do was expand our broadcast capability so that we could provide our service through the Internet,” Jennings said.

Channel 22 carries all of the local government meetings in town. All other programming, including school athletic games, is on Channel 16. In addition to video on demand for both, the live broadcast of Channel 22 will also be available simultaneously online. That service would make those meetings accessible to a broader population, Jennings said.

BCTV is funded through franchise fees which are charged to Comcast consumers in Bedford. Its budget does not affect the tax rate, according to Jennings.

Jennings estimates that it cost about $10,000 to acquire the video on demand and live streaming. Those new capabilities were provided through Tightrope Media Systems, a vendor that Bedford community television has been using for the past four to five years.

The town has spent a total of $40,000 to $50,000 installing and upgrading Tightrope systems during that period, Jennings said. Before the town could switch over to video on demand and live streaming, Jennings said it had to get a high speed fiber optic line with a wider bandwidth. That would ensure that the community television Web site could handle multiple viewers.

The online viewing capability now means that the 16 percent of Bedford households who do not subscribe to Comcast – meaning they do not get community cable channels 16 and 22 – will now be able to follow meetings, if they are unable to attend them in person, Jennings added.

Even some of the Comcast subscribers might be more comfortable checking out a meeting from the convenience of their computer.

“Sometimes, television has to come to us,” Jennings said. To see the archived videos, visit www.bedfordtv.com.

Public shows support for public access TV

Hooksett Editor — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 19:54:00 GMT

BY JENN McDOWELL

As the May 13 election draws near, a committee of residents devoted to instituting public access television in Hooksett continue to spread the word on a petitioned warrant article to establish public access or remove the 3 percent charge the town adds onto Comcast bills.

“We’ve touched base to just about everybody we can think of,” said Peter Farwell, the resident leading the charge, after visiting the Hooksett-ites senior citizen group to bring them up to speed on what’s going on with the public access debate.

The plan is to use franchise fees currently collected from Comcast bills to set up a public access cable TV channel in Hooksett, a project which could cost upward of $90,000 in the first year, depending on whether the town waits another year to buy equipment and hire parttime help to run it.

Currently, franchise fees the town collects, about 3 percent of each Comcast bill, go into the town coffers and are used to offset taxes.

The town gets about $100,000 per year, according to Town Administrator David Jodoin. “The town has to raise $23 million in taxes between school and town, and this is $100,000,” Farwell said, adding it’s likely some of the money would continue going into the general fund after public access has been paid for.

The station would be located at the Village School, currently being renovated to house the town offices. Fiber optic cables would run from the Village School up to the Comcast head station in Manchester.

Buying and installing the cables alone is expected to run around $30,000, Farwell said. Additional equipment needed to run the station has been estimated at around $27,000, rounding out the “one-time” expenses at close to $60,000 for the first year.

Two part-time positions, a technician and a programming coordinator, would tag on an extra $25,000 to $30,000 combined which would be a yearly expense and would become part of the station’s operating budget. Farwell pointed out the town could decide not to add the two part-time positions into the budget until the following year, or even to hold off on equipment for a year to spread out the impact.

Farwell said he envisions an advisory board made up of councilors, school board members and regular citizens that would oversee the setup and operation of the station.

The Town Council has already put a $1 line item in the budget to reserve a spot for public access already, allowing them to put money towards public access.

After conducting surveys, the public access committee found most Hooksett voters who participated in them fell into one of three categories: those who wanted to use the franchise fees to set up public access, those who wanted the fees removed from their bills and those who wanted the fees to continue going into the town’s general fund.

Some of the town’s residents, including Town Councilor David Ross, who supports the public access initiative and feels the franchise fees are an unfair tax because the money, which is only collected from Comcast users, gets spread among the entire town for tax relief.

“The fact of the matter of offsetting the tax rate is true, and it’s an unfair tax,” Ross said at the town’s deliberative session on Saturday, April 5. “It does not cost the taxpayers any money, it costs the ratepayers money if you subscribe to cable.”

David Pearl, another advocate for public access who has worked with Hooksett Issues, an online discussion group, to get the word out, said either public access should be set up or the fee should be removed from Comcast bills.

“There is growing support that if (the warrant article) fails, they’d like to take this franchise fee off,” Pearl said.

Resident Harold Murray said at the Town Meeting that he opposes the idea of public access all together.

“A hundred thousand dollars is now going into the general fund to offset taxes,” Murray said. “That hundred thousand has got to come from somewhere,” he said.

Fire Chief Mike Williams and Police Chief Steven Agrafiotis have both written and signed statements supporting public access in Hooksett, particularly for posting emergency messages having to do with public safety or natural disasters.

Williams said a public access channel would have been instrumental in getting Hooksett residents to safe ground during the flooding of the past two years. “It’s a way to get information out about a lot of people,” Williams said.

Agrafiotis agreed, saying the Police Commission has discussed public access in depth. He added the Hooksett Safety Center would be wired into the fiber optic cables to connect their media room, allowing the police and fire departments to hold press conferences and educational programming at the center.

“From the point of view of public safety, the ability to get out information whether we had a flood situation or a school lockdown or something like that, to get the information out quickly,” Agrafiotis said.

Agrafiotis was chief of the Raymond Police Department when public access was established there, and said it was a positive outlet and excellent source for the community.

Even if the article passes, it’s still going to be a while before public access is up and running, Farwell said.

“I don’t see much happening until the late third quarter, early fourth quarter of this year,” Farwell said, around September or October.

Hooksett to consider sewer plant expansion

Hooksett Editor — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 19:52:00 GMT

BY JENN McDOWELL

Among the items Hooksett voters will discuss at Town Meeting on Saturday, April 5, are a $1.5 million bond for sewer plant upgrades, two new trucks for the Highway Department, raises for nonunionized town employees, additional staff for the Highway and Fire Departments, and starting up a public access TV station.

They will also weigh in on a proposed budget of $15,786,795, more than $400,000 higher than the default budget, which would project the tax rate at around $6.60 per $1,000 of assessed value. For a home assessed at $300,000, the proposed town budget alone would comprise $1,980 on the tax bill.

Sewer expansion According to Sewer Commissioner Sid Baines, the $14 million plant expansion needs the $1.5 million from voters to add to $6 million the plant has already raised to fund the second phase of the project, which would add a second clarifier and increase the plant’s capacity by 10 percent.

About half of the $6 million raised came from a state revolving loan fund and the other half through developers. Sewer rates increased in the past year to help pay back the loan, Baines said.

The $1.5 million was originally built into the plans for Cabela’s, which have been put on hold due to reduced profits. The bond would increase the tax rate by about 15 cents per $1,000 of assessed value. For a Hooksett home assessed at $300,000, that’s an increase of between $45 and $51 on the tax bill.

At the Budget Committee’s public hearing on the warrant, the idea of comitting 30 percent of the plant’s flow to commercial business to foster growth was discussed.

“I think it would be much more appealing and guarantee it to pass,” said Budget Committee member Gerald Kearney about including such a promise in the warrant article.

Town Administrator David Jodoin said the idea was discussed with town attorney Bart Mayer, who said that would only “murky up” the language. Baines agrees with that advice. “Anything more that you put in an article muddies it up when it goes to the bond bank,” he said.

Town Council Chairman Paul Loiselle said the town cannot continue to say “no” to prospective developers because there is no more sewer capacity. “I definitely am adamant about the voters getting behind this 100 percent,” he said.

More firefighters
While the Town Council and Budget Committee were in agreement on the majority of warrant items, they differed when it came to Article 24, which asks for $129,548 to fund two additional firefighter/EMT positions in the Fire Department.

While the Town Council voted 6-1 to recommend the article, the Budget Committee voted 2-6 against recommending it. Passing this article would reduce the operating budget by $99,672 in overtime, leaving the town with a net increase for the coming year of $29,876 should voters pass the article.

Assistant Fire Chief Dean Jore said the department has saved the town money by doing its own vehicle maintenance and repairs, and plowing out the town’s hydrants and cisterns. “I don’t think firefighters should be plowing cisterns,” said Budget Committee member John Pieroni.

The two additional employees would also bring the department closer to state standards for staffing levels, Jore said. Currently, at least one officer and two firefighter/EMTs staff both the Central Station at the Hooksett Safety Center and Station 1 by the Town Hall 24 hours per day, seven days a week.

More highway workers and trucks
The Highway Department is asking voters to approve a total of $324,294 to purchase two trucks and hire two more employees.

Passing Article 16 would grant the Highway Department permission to enter into a 5-year lease for $151,000 for a plowdump truck, and would further collect $30,205 from Hooksett taxpayers for the first year’s payment.

Article 17 seeks $55,000 for a one-time purchase of a backhoe for the Highway Department.

Unlike the Fire Department’s endeavors to get two more firefighters, the Highway Department’s request for $118,294 to hire two full-time truck drivers went to the warrant with recommendations from both the Town Council and Budget Committee.

Public access cable TV At the public hearing, the Budget Committee also heard from resident David Pearl on a petitioned warrant article to bring public access television to Hooksett.

The program would be paid for through franchise fees the town currently collects from Comcast customers, which is currently about three percent of the total bill.

Right now, the money collected from those fees goes into the town’s general fund, and it would more than cover the estimated start-up costs for the station.

The total amount needed for the first year could approach $100,000, which would pay for a typical set up for the station and fiber optic cables.

Hooksett Town Meeting takes place Saturday, April 5, at 1 p.m., at Cawley Middle School.