D-F selectmen adopt cable TV ordinance

By Stuart Hedstrom 
Staff Writer

    DOVER-FOXCROFT — With the town of Dover-Foxcroft’s cable TV franchise agreement with Time Warner set to expire next year, town officials have begun the process to have a new arrangement in place. A first step was taken during an Oct. 27 meeting with the adoption of a cable TV ordinance.

    “At our last meeting we talked about the fact we will be putting together a new cable TV franchise agreement,” Town Manager Jack Clukey said, with the 15-year contract with Time Warner ending next June. “One of the pieces to have a franchise agreement is to have a cable TV ordinance, which defines what you have in a franchise agreement. Basically what we will do is put together a draft agreement with provisions we feel are appropriate”
    Clukey said the town will be gathering feedback from residents on what they would like for cable TV and other telecommunications services in the franchise agreement, such as through a survey at the polls. “We are trying to understand what we as a community want to see in it and through negotiating with them,” he said. Clukey explained the board’s promotion and development committee would work with Time Warner and a franchise agreement would be voted on by the selectmen.
    “This seems to be an appropriate time for people to talk with their friends and neighbors,” Select Vice Chair Cindy Freeman Cyr said of the needs and wants for services in a franchise agreement. She mentioned a need for high speed Internet beyond the downtown area as one example.
    “The longest a franchise agreement can be is 15 years, but certainly it can be shorter,” Clukey said.
    Selectman Steve Grammont said the town may not have a great deal to negotiate, but the number of years in the agreement can be leverage for Dover-Foxcroft.
    In other business, the board met with Foxcroft Academy Head of School Arnold Shorey for an update on happenings at the secondary school attended by the community’s teenage residents. Shorey began by thanking the town’s assistance in securing a grant to support solar-powered crosswalk signs accessing the main campus and Burns/Johnson Tennis Courts.
    Shorey also expressed his gratitude to the town, Police Chief Dennis Dyer, Fire Chief Joe Guyotte and everyone else involved in allowing for the Foxcroft Academy Homecoming parade earlier in the month. “We are very appreciative of the support of the town,” he said.
    Foxcroft Academy has about 90 students enrolled in its boarding program, representing 13 countries, with some additional enrollments expected for the spring semesters to put the total close to the 110 capacity. Shorey said school officials like to have the boarding students make up about 20 percent of the pupil population.
    Having recently returned from a trip to China, Shorey said he traveled across the globe to set up an arrangement between Foxcroft Academy and a sister school. He said under the agreement 10 students would come to Foxcroft Academy.
    Shorey said plans are being developed for a new wing on the east side of campus. He called this a “humanities wing” with plans for two social studies classrooms. “The plan is to build these classrooms for 21st century learning, and also for building security,” Shorey said, as the band and industrial arts areas would be connected and would reduce how often students need to go outside.
    “This is not a budgeted item, we have a major donor,” Shorey said, saying the plan for the addition will be brought before the planning board for approval.
    “The committee feels continuing to do an annual parade is too much to do for Homecoming,” Clukey said in his town manager’s report. He said the Dover-Foxcroft Shiretown Homecoming committee will now look to hold a parade every five years, with the next such procession set for 2017 or the town’s 95th birthday.
    Clukey said this announcement is being made now, over nine months before the first weekend in August, in the event another organization wishes to step forward and organize a parade for 2015.