ROCKLAND, Maine — City councilors will vote Monday night on soliciting proposals from cable television and Internet providers in an effort to upgrade services.
The franchise agreement between the city and Time Warner Cable expired several years ago, but the terms of that deal are still being honored by both parties.
The council is scheduled to vote on creating a public comment gathering process about cable services at its 7 p.m. Monday meeting at City Hall. Councilors also will vote on soliciting proposals from providers to meet the demands of the public.
City Councilor Larry Pritchett said he wants cable services at City Hall upgraded so that municipal meetings can be streamed live and the quality of broadcasts improved.
“We live in an era when residents are more likely to engage with their local government through digital media than through attending a meeting or having a street corner conversation. From my perspective, extending fiber optic service to City Hall is a key upgrade to improving Rockland’s citizen access to their government,” Pritchett said.
Fiber optic cables run along Route 1 in Rockland. City Hall is located near Route 1, but Pritchett said the city should see if Time Warner would agree to pay to extend the fiber optic lines to City Hall as part of its agreement with the city. Or the city could seek another company to offer an upgrade. Pritchett pointed out that the 2015-16 work plan for the city targets a number of technology weaknesses, especially at City Hall where faster Internet service is needed.
In the meantime, however, Pritchett wants the city to negotiate with Time Warner to see if connections at City Hall can be improved by July 1.
A longer term goal is to consider the approach taken by Rockport to create a municipal fiber optic system and then lease it to a provider. He said Rockland Community Development Director Audra Caler Bell is exploring a regional approach with Camden, Rockport and Thomaston.
Pritchett said extending fiber optic service to more parts of Rockland is two to three years away.
The City Council voted in 1996 to extend the cable television agreement with FrontierVision for 10 years. FrontierVision was acquired in 1999 by Adelphia Communications Corp., and that company went bankrupt. Time Warner acquired some of its assets and became Rockland’s cable provider in the early 2000s.
The city receives $70,000 annually from Time Warner through the franchise agreement.