GILROY
– There’s both good news and bad news.
After months of preparation, city officials are excited that
community-access television programming is about to reach a whole
new level in Gilroy with tonight’s official debut of the
four-channel Community Media Access Partnership.
GILROY – There’s both good news and bad news.
After months of preparation, city officials are excited that community-access television programming is about to reach a whole new level in Gilroy with tonight’s official debut of the four-channel Community Media Access Partnership.
But some are still frustrated over the lack of progress – or at least a general lack of candor – from the city’s cable provider, Charter Communications, which apparently has missed a Dec. 31 extended deadline to rebuild the city’s cable and Internet system.
Although Charter and the city nearly came to legal blows earlier this year during a months-long dispute over the terms of the rebuild agreement, so far it doesn’t appear that the situation will re-enter that arena – yet.
With most of the rebuild work apparently done, many areas receiving service and the rest supposedly just a month or so away, the city is not yet pursuing fines or other punitive action.
“At this point, the city is working with Charter to complete the project as soon as possible,” said Joe Kline, the city’s public information officer. “For all practical purposes, it is about 95 percent completed and should be completed soon.”
The rebuild is expected to provide Gilroyans with options for expanded service over the 29-channel basic cable package, including 78 digital-quality channels, broadband Internet service and premium movie packages.
Charter Interim General Manager John Adams could not be reached for comment before press time. But the last the city had heard, the company had completed 21 of 26 service areas or “nodes” in Gilroy, Kline said, and had begun offering the expanded services.
Of the five still unfinished – which lie mostly in the city’s Northwest Quad area – physical construction work is mostly complete, and splicing and testing work is now underway. Based on the city’s experience with the other nodes, the work should be completed by the end of the month, Kline said.
The company also is building a so-called “I-net” or municipal high-speed voice, data and video network. While the part of the network linking Gilroy, Hollister and San Juan Bautista that enables the CMAP service is complete, work on Gilroy’s internal network – which will link sites such as schools, libraries and government buildings – is still underway, Kline said.
Under the contract with Charter, the city has the ability to pursue damages or fines against the cable provider, but is holding off so far because the rebuild is expected to be done shortly, and pursuing penalties could be a lengthy and expensive process, Kline said.
“At this point, we’re trying to be a more cooperative partner because we see they’re making a good-faith effort to try to get this done,” he said.
Councilman Craig Gartman, who lives in the Northwest Quad, said Thursday he was excited that enough work is done to launch the CMAP service. Gartman has taken classes on television production in the past and wants to get involved in the new channels.
CMAP channels will offer shows such as on-air government programs like Gilroy City Council meetings and public service announcements, Gavilan College students and campus group shows, kindergarten through 12th-grade educational programming, school district meetings and taped shows produced by community members.
“I think it’s a great opportunity not only for educational purposes for those putting on the programs, but also those in the community,” he said.
However, Gartman expressed frustration over repeatedly pushed-back completion dates from company officials and a general lack of communication over when it expects to provide the full services.
Even when the city has received answers on expected completion times, the company has not stuck to them, he said. For example, Charter officials in the past told the city they expected to have the work done by Thanksgiving – let alone the Dec. 31 deadline, he noted.
Gartman said he’d rather not pursue fines at this point, noting “they still won’t give service to the people.” But the city needs solid – and realistic – answers from the company about timelines, he said.
“We’re all grown ups, and we can be compassionate … but first we have to have an open and honest discussion about the what the issues are,” he said.
Although the $30 million system rebuild was originally due to be completed last January, Charter received an extension through a compromise agreement reached with the city earlier this year over undergrounding of equipment.
Charter had sought permission to install sensitive equipment above ground during the rebuild in apparent violation of a city undergrounding ordinance, noting that full undergrounding would cost an extra $3 million in construction costs and provide inferior service.
However, the city ruled Charter could leave some – but not all – of the sensitive equipment above ground, noting the company had been fully aware of the undergrounding requirements when it entered a franchise agreement with the city.
The issue almost reached the legal arena when Charter threatened to reduce its services, but the two sides hammered out a compromise that allowed Charter to place some equipment above ground and extend its construction deadline. In return, the company agreed to work closely with residents over the placement of the equipment and to improve customer service.
But one Gilroy resident said he has not received that service. Ken Smith said he canceled his existing Internet service to go with Charter after company representatives said it would be available Jan. 3.
The company later rescheduled installation to Jan. 9, but when Smith took time off work to accommodate the work, the company called again and rescheduled for Jan. 20.
“It’s kind of a disservice to the people of Gilroy,” said a frustrated Smith. “This is very frustrating — we live by the Internet nowadays.”
