hard deadlines

Heard from our state Reps. Ray Gallison and Amy Rice, who passed along a letter they sent to the PUC last week, expressing their concern over the (shelved) plan to close the public access studio and the longer-term threat which new PUC rules continue to pose.

October 28, 2009

Elia Germani, Esq., Chairman
R.I. Public Utilities Commission
89 Jefferson Boulevard
Warwick, RI 02888

Re: Newport County Television Public, Education and Government Studio

Dear Chairman Germani,

We have recently been informed that the proposal to move the Newport County Television (NCTV) Public, Education and Government (PEG) studio from Portsmouth to Bristol has been withdrawn. Although we are grateful, we feel compelled to express our hopes that this studio will remain in Portsmouth.

Realizing that this may have been a cost-saving measure would it have been the most effective idea for the Portsmouth community? The move to the Bristol facility is labeled as “only a few miles more to drive,” but would have resulted in:

• loss of Newport County’s PEG facility;
• loss of a significant portion of the technical and physical infrastructure now in the Portsmouth facility that could not fit in the Bristol facility. This would probably eliminate the capability to cover on-location events such as Aquidneck Island parades;
• elimination of a studio that has held live forums with up to 15 political candidates and shift to a small studio that could only accommodate a few people;
• the need for people to travel off island to come to the studio.  This, at first glance, appears trivial, but if you consider a current 5-10 minute drive to the current studio for Aquidneck Island residents changing to a 20-35 minute drive (not considering construction and weather delays and the potential for a future toll booth on the Mt. Hope Bridge), it becomes significant.  The many people who come to the Portsmouth facility to tape their community events will probably opt not to travel to Bristol;
• the potential loss of a significant portion of the current NCTV volunteer crew; and,
• the need for Newport County residents in Jamestown and Tiverton to traverse over two bridges to get to the facility resulting in a significantly longer trip for them.

The Portsmouth PEG studio is larger than the Bristol studio. Obviously, smaller and with less equipment results in the lower cost. However, at what cost to the community? Very few shows are produced out of the Bristol studio. I am afraid that Newport County residents will suffer from this. With the need for local public information, we should be expanding the public’s capability to produce and view local community issues – not reducing it. A better solution that could provide increased capability and cost effectiveness would be to incorporate the small Bristol facility into the portion of the Portsmouth facility being vacated by Cox Communications. This would allow for expanded service and more quality programming.

We ask you and your fellow commission members to investigate the rationale for the move to Bristol, should this matter arise again, and give every consideration to our Newport County residents.

Sincerely,

Amy G. Rice, Esquire	Raymond E. Gallison, Jr.
State Representative	State Representative
District 72 – Portsmouth-Middletown-Newport	District 69 – Bristol, Portsmouth

Cc:
Richard W. Talipsky, Chair, Portsmouth EDC
Robert Fish, President, RI PBS
Eric A. Palazzo, PUC Assoc. Admin. Cable Section
John Spirito, Esq., PUC Chief of Legal Services

Thanks to Reps. Rice and Gallison for their forceful representation of our town's interests, and to all the other folks who gave the PUC an earful on this.

Update: Got a nice note from John Loughlin who asked if there was anything else he could do to help, and I'm sure he'll be keeping an eye on this going forward.