Orrington board mulls cable options

ORRINGTON – By this time next year, residents might be able to experience town meetings and other aspects of community life without leaving the comfort of their homes.

During a school committee meeting Tuesday at Center Drive School, an update was provided by a member of the Orrington Cable Access Committee, a volunteer group that has explored ways in which the town might take advantage of cable television options now available in the region.

Orrington is among 14 towns and cities that belong to the Penobscot-Downeast Cable Television Consortium, originally formed to negotiate a cable agreement with Adelphia Communications and its predecessors. As part of that agreement, Adelphia has made PEG – public access, education and government – channels available to consortium member communities.

Committee member Ron Hatfield, who conducted the financial legwork for the group, estimated the cost of purchasing the equipment the town would need to bring community cable to Orrington at $34,000.

The town has more than $20,000 in a reserve account for community cable access needs, Town Manager Dexter Johnson said Tuesday. The funds come from the town’s 15-year contract with Adelphia, he said. In exchange for access to its residents, the town of Orrington is reimbursed 3 percent of the company’s gross revenues from customers within the town, which now amounts to about $8,000 a year.

Orrington is the only community reimbursed at that rate, Johnson said before Tuesday’s meeting. The other consortium members receive the maximum 5 percent reimbursement. The reason for the difference, he said, is that selectmen in office when the contract was negotiated in 1997 were under the impression that the 2 percent difference would translate to savings for resident cable subscribers. Current selectmen have since learned that this is not the case and have petitioned Adelphia to give the town the difference.

Though a final decision has yet to be made, Orrington selectmen endorsed the concept in July. On Tuesday, the school committee agreed to house the control room in a corner of one the school’s computer labs. A decision on where cameras would be mounted – to record the proceedings of the school committee and other local bodies – will be made later. Cameras could be installed at the municipal building down the street, where selectmen and other town committees meet, but that would add to the cost, Hatfield said.

Hatfield, school administrators, and Kay Allcroft, a school committee member serving as a liaison to the cable panel, are among those who believe the service’s biggest potential may be in education.

Besides meetings and community announcements, officials said, community cable offerings one day could be expanded to include classes, school plays and concerts, sports and other local events. They noted that some of the proposed content could be developed and produced by local pupils.