OXFORD — Selectmen voted 3-2 Thursday to table a proposed cable TV contract, citing issues that include its length and lack of internet connection for municipal departments and outlying areas.
The agreement signed in 2001 expired in 2016.
The proposed 15-year contract requires Charter Communications, which operates under the brand of Spectrum, to extend cable service to areas with at least 20 residences per mile; allows for a 5 percent franchise fee based on Charter Communications’ local gross revenues for cable TV services, not including Internet or phone sales; and provides a process for consumer complaints.
Additionally, Charter Communications would provide up to $7,500 for the installation of audiovisual equipment for the town’s local access channel, which would be accessible to all local cable subscribers regardless of what plan they have, indemnifies the town against all liabilities and claims and sets the amount of insurance Charter Communications is required to carry.
But some selectmen balked when they heard the cable company would not budge on the connection to areas with at least 20 residences per mile and would not provide free internet to municipal departments — there is no Federal Communication Commission requirement to do so.
Town Manager Butch Asselin said they tried to negotiate, but company representatives would not budge.
“There’s got to be someone else out there,” said Selectman Caldwell Jackson of the apparent lack of competition in the cable industry locally.
Although fiber-optic cables are being installed locally by another franchise, it is not offering cable/internet service to the area. Should it do so in the future, officials said, customers could change services.
Asselin said Charter Communications did agree to give the town another $2,500 for audiovisual equipment, if it agrees to a 20-year contract.
“Do you think this is as good as it can get?” board Chairman Floyd Thayer asked.
“I think it is,” Asselin said.
Asselin said the company appears to have the “upper hand” but at least the contract puts a process in place.
In other news, resident Dana Dillingham questioned the board’s decision at its last meeting to discuss personnel pay in open session.
At that meeting, Selectman Scott Hunter questioned the possibility of hiring a police officer working for another governmental agency to fill an Oxford Police Department vacancy.
“It’s bad practice,” said Dillingham, the administrator of Oxford County Jail in Paris.
The board also approved a renewed mutual aid agreement for emergency services assistance among Mechanic Falls, Norway, Otisfield, Oxford, Paris, Poland and West Paris, and authorized Fire Chief Gary Sacco to sign it.
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Oxford Selectman Ed Knightly asks board members Thursday evening where money from the town timber account is being used. Officials will get an accounting later. (Advertiser Democrat photo by Leslie H. Dixon)
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