Moultonboro public access cable policy up for presentation tonight

Meredith News     September 18th, 2008

MOULTONBORO — The Moultonboro Board of Selectmen is moving closer to forming a broadcast policy, as requested by several residents, which would allow for the television broadcast of taped selectmen’s meetings on the Time-Warner public access channel. After resident and Moultonboro Citizens Alliance member Hollis Austin read a letter questioning the town’s use of franchise fees and asking them to hurry the process, Selectman Joel Mudgett attempted to clarify things. Mudgett said that the franchise fees were used to help people in the more remote areas of Moultonboro get access to cable, and that the funds were accounted for in the town’s general fund. Selectman Betsey Patten added that the town’s 15-year contract would expire in 2016. “There’s not an actual lot of cable here, so there’s not a lot of access,” said Patten. “Now we’re trying to get the process going. We’re trying to be sure that we’re not ending up with new litigation. This is to protect us all, not just the board of selectmen.” Selectman Ed Charest said that he had brought the issue up several years ago, but cable access at the time did not garner a lot of interest.“You know how I love to be

center stage,” Charest joked. “But I didn’t know how complicated it was. Our quality had better be better than some others.” At a workshop last month, the selectmen thumbed through a draft of policy proposed for future use of the Time-Warner public access channel. The selectmen had to consider such issues as equal access, who edited the tape and how it was done,and whether or not endorsements could be used on the channel. The legality of some items had been researched and questioned by selectmen at meetings during the past few weeks, and the selectmen sent a draft to the Moultonboro School Board for their comments on the process. Town Administrator Carter Terenzini told selectmen that he had received those comments and would include them in a presentation on the policy to be,given tonight at the selectmen’s meeting at 7 p.m Resident and Moultonboro Citizens Alliance member Al Hume questioned the need for cable access policy at all, citing the towns of Meredith and Tuftonboro, two local towns that he said broadcast their meetings, but had no policy on cable access. “Any community that moves without policy is making a tragic error,” said Terenzini. “You can spend months afterward cleaning up. When the first lawsuit comes up, they’ll back up and

wish they’d put in policy.” Terenzini also said that one couldn’t compare Meredith and Moultonboro, since Meredith contracts with Lakes Region Public Access for their televised broadcasts. He also said the board and town plan to lay out their policy at tonight’s meeting for the public to comment on and ask questions. Back in July, when the issue came up, the Alliance contacted the Time Warner channel and anticipated airing taped public meetings on the channel. After finding out about the intended action, the selectmen contacted Time-Warner and asked them to pull the meetings from the channel, until they could establish their own policy for broadcasting meetings.

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