MINOT – Setting aside unresolved contract issues between the town and Adelphia, selectmen Monday night sought to find out what the cable company intends to do to upgrade and expand services in town. The other question before the board was the effect of Time Warner’s taking over Adelphia’s main operation.
Michael Edgecomb, government affairs manager for Adelphia in Maine, said present plans call for upgrading Minot’s services to match those available in Auburn and Lewiston.
“Beginning in July, we intend to install a fiber optic system. We should finish in August. We’ll just replace the existing lines; there are no plans to extend the service area,” said Edgecomb.
This upgrade, Edgecomb said, would give Minot subscribers access to high-speed Internet, as well as increase the number of channels in Adelphia’s classic cable package from about 45 to 74, and offer a number of digital cable options.
Selectmen were not happy to hear that Adelphia had no intention of expanding the service area.
Chairman Dean Campbell pointed out that, in the past decade, the Brighton Hill area, as an example, has certainly grown to the point where there would be more than 15 potential subscribers per cable line mile, the minimum under the town’s present contract.
Edgecomb noted that Adelphia’s minimum now is 20 subscribers per mile and that Time Warner is more like 25 per mile.
“It costs $15,000 to $20,000 a mile to run cable. In Auburn, you might have 70 subscribers per mile but here in Minot, it would be far less and just not economical,” said Edgecomb.
James Belleau, the town’s attorney, who is in the process of negotiating a contract between the town and Adelphia, asked whether Adelphia’s planned upgrade of services was really going to happen this summer.
Assured by Edgecomb that “the plans are definite as far as I know,” Belleau pressed Edgecomb on whether Time Warner would assume the terms of any agreement the town might work out with Adelphia.
“We don’t want to start negotiations all over again once they take over,” said Belleau.
Edgecomb responded, “Yes, they will honor them. Time Warner will tell us when they want to be the negotiator.”
In other business, Road Manager Arlan Saunders told selectmen that bids for summer work are now out and that May 13 is the deadline for bids on the town’s annual supply of culverts, with May 20 the deadline to bid on paving and road reclaiming work.
Selectmen also met with School Committee Chairwoman Colleen Quint to discuss plans to run a water line from the town garage well to serve the Minot Consolidated School.
Selectman Steve French advised Saunders that the leach field for the town building complex had to be moved so that it is 300 feet from the wellhead, now that the well was going to serve as a public water supply.
French, Saunders and Campbell agreed to meet Thursday to flag the water line’s path. French also reported that he had decided to increase the pipe size from 2 inches to 3 inches and he also noted that a booster pump will be needed at the school.
Quint noted that school and town officials should meet soon to establish the responsibilities that each will have for the long-term maintenance of the well and water line.
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