§ 1-10-182. Public and educational services; emergency use; educational and governmental access.

(a)

Public and educational services. The franchised cable operator shall furnish upon request, free of charge, one (1) service outlet activated for basic subscriber service to public schools and municipal buildings as may be designated by the county within the franchised cable operator's service area; provided, however, that if it is necessary to extend the franchised cable operator's trunk or feeder lines more than two hundred (200) feet solely to provide service to any such school or public building, the county shall have the option either of paying the franchised cable operator's direct costs for such extension in excess of two hundred (200) feet or of releasing the franchised cable operator from the obligation to provide service to such buildings. The franchised cable operator shall be permitted to recover, from any public building owner entitled to free service, the direct cost of installing, when requested to do so, more than one (1) outlet, or concealed inside wiring, or a service outlet requiring more than one hundred fifty (150) feet of drop cable. Additionally, there will be no monthly charge for service to such building.

(b)

Emergency use. The franchised cable operator shall make its facilities immediately available to the county upon request during the course of any emergency or disaster and shall comply with emergency alert system rules and regulations as adopted by the FCC.

(c)

Educational and governmental access.

(1)

To the extent permitted by law, and in order to fulfill the board/franchising authority's desired goal of a noncommercial educational and governmental access policy that will facilitate the long-range needs of the county (without waiving any right to lease or secure carriage under commercial use/lease access provisions of the Cable Act), the board/franchising authority adopts the following:

a.

Within six (6) months from the effective date of this article, or within six (6) months of the date that an applicant's initial franchise is approved (whichever is applicable), a franchised cable operator shall provide, at its own expense, the following daily access:

1.

One (1) twelve-hour educational channel that is available for providing programming, instructional materials, and/or course work (including distance learning courses) from schools (as such term is defined by state statute), junior colleges, colleges, and universities (as those terms are defined by state statute); and

2.

One (1) twelve-hour governmental channel that is available for providing coverage of board/franchising authority meetings, and other relating programming offered by or designed by the board/franchising authority, or designated official.

(2)

The educational and governmental channel reservation requirements described above require only sufficient channel capacity to accommodate the minimal hourly requirements for educational and governmental access, not two (2) separate channels.

(3)

Both the board/franchising authority and the individual franchised cable operator shall review educational and governmental usage at the end of each six-month period, with the board/franchising authority evaluating the response and actual use of such channels. If, after any six-month period, the percentage of use for any required educational or governmental channel drops below twenty-five (25) percent of the total time allocated, then the required number of hours shall be reduced to a number that most closely approximates the average hours of use per day.

(4)

If at any time, ninety (90) percent of the total time allocated for an educational or governmental access use is consistently programmed and/or used five (5) days a week for a period of three (3) months, then the franchised cable operator shall provide an additional two (2) hours for either the educational or governmental access use. Repeated or re-run programs or bulletin boards may not account for more than twenty-five (25) percent in order to trigger the provision for additional hours. If additional hours are required due to such increased use, and such additional hours may not be accommodated on one channel, then the franchised cable operator must make the additional hours available on another channel. However, under no circumstances shall a franchised cable operator be required to reserve capacity for more than one (1) twenty-four-hour educational channel and one (1) twenty-four-hour governmental channel.

(Ord. No. 97-023, § 1, 4-22-97)