Text Box: BELCHERTOWN TELECOMMUNICATIONS ADVISORY COMMITTEE ANNUAL REPORT - 2006       In summary, the Committee has mainly concentrated on upcoming contract renewal negotiations with Charter Communications. This is the most important task of the Committee and we have devoted most of our energies to this activity.     Membership   A number of changes occurred in the makeup of the Committee. Presently, members are:   Lew Louraine James Burke Christofer deHahn Kristopher Pacunas Joe Gohra Paul Nelson Frank Lomanno   A word of thanks to outgoing member, Ron Aponte, while welcoming Joe Gohra, who joined the Committee in January and Paul Nelson, who joined in December . The membership is now at full complement and stands at seven. Our members have a broad range of skills in the telecommunication, technology and networking areas, and bring a significant understanding of current issues in the telecommunications field.   Election of officers included:   Frank Lomanno – Chair Lew Louraine – Vice Chair and Committee Lead for Contract Negotiations Christofer deHahn – Secretary   The liaison member between the Telecommunications Advisory Committee and the Board of Selectmen also changed during the year, with the selection of Ron Aponte succeeding Gerry Grasso. We are pleased to have Ron as a liaison to the Committee, given his term with us and the familiarity with our issues.     Again, this year I want to give individual acknowledgment to Lew Louraine for heading up the sub-committee on the contract renewal process. His work has been very much appreciated by the Committee.     Meetings   Meetings are regularly scheduled for the third Thursday of each month at 7:00 PM and at the BCTV studios on State Street.   Email Address   Our Committee’s Town email address (telecom@belchertown.org) serves  as our main method of internal and external correspondence. Emails to this address are forwarded to all the members of the Committee, thus providing open and instant feedback to everyone.   Web Site   Thanks to Joe Gohra for his effort in putting together the Committee’s web page. This has been long time coming and Joe did a superb job in the design and implementation of the web site. Along with up-to-date news, the site contains the membership, Mission Statement, the Annual Report and other related links and contacts. The page can be accessed through the Belchertown home page.  Charter Contract Renewal  The focus of this year’s effort was the Charter Communication’s cable television license with the Town of Belchertown. The present contract will expire on July 1, 2007. As the advisory group to the Selectmen, we have created a sub-Committee to address the renewal process. Lew Louraine is in charge of this task and is completing the contract negotiations and the required documentation. This contract does not cover anything but television programming. This means any other Charter services, such as internet and telephone service, will have to wait for new FCC regulations to govern their applicability. The Committee has received many emails and letters from Charter subscribers on various issues and comments concerning Charter service. We would like to thank everyone who took the time to write to us. Everything that was received has been made part of the documentation, and has been included in the contract renewal process. Public Meetings, April 2006, and a Call-in TV show, June 2006, were held in Lawrence Memorial Hall and both events were televised and taped by Belchertown Community Television.  The Telecommunication Advisory Committee has met with the Belchertown Board of Selectmen periodically throughout this ascertainment period to apprise them of our progress and timeline.  At each meeting the Select Board was asked for their input.  Belchertown Community Television (BCTV) has retained Peter Epstein, from the Boston based law firm to advise us on the upcoming contract.  Included as attachments in this document: Belchertown Ascertainment Report Draft request for a cable television renewal proposal Review, additions and corrections to RFP, Ascertainment Document and Draft License ascertainment Comparison     Other   We also would like to thank the Belchertown IT Department for their assistance in setting up and maintaining our email and Web site for us.   Complaints to this Committee pertain to hookups, service calls and the addition of the Internet service. Other comments were rate increases due to additional programs brought into the channel line-up. Again, we need to remind subscribers that neither this Committee nor the Town of Belchertown has any authority in terms of payment rates. The cable rates are regulated by the State, and channel selection is partly based on FCC regulations and well as the popularity of any particular program channel. Complaints should be directed to the Massachusetts Department of Telecommunications & Energy Department’s Consumer Division: Massachusetts Department of Telecommunications & Energy Consumer DivisionOne South Station Boston, MA 02110 Phone: (617) 305-3531 or 1-800-392-6066 Email: Consumer.Complaints@state.ma.us     Respectfully Submitted,   Frank D. Lomanno  Chair, Belchertown Telecommunications Advisory Committee