Block · one region of the page, as the scanner read it. It may hold a whole story, part of one, several, or an advertisement; stitching blocks into articles is the next step. Text is supplied OCR.
Page 1 · column 4 of 4 · from the scan, no model involved
Cable TV meets
' ^ ' ’ '' T P
with town, county
to settle contract'[
By SHARON KILPATRICK l
Rappahannock N*w» Staff Writer
Representatives of the county, the town of Washington, and Central Virginia Cable, a subsidiary of Ad«jlphia Communications, will meet July 5 to try to resolve differences over the cable TV franchise agreement. **
The town and county drafted a franchise agreement and sent it to the cable company this spring. Earlier this month the cable company returned the agreement with changes it wanted marked in. I
Several differences will have to be negotiated before the agreement can be brought to a public hearing. J
The major issue concerns whether or not the countjy and town can regulate rates for basic service. Federal law allows the localities to regulate rates “if there is no effective competition,” County Administrator John McCarthy said. jr
The county can show there is no effective competition if it can show that in a certain number of locations^ the county a homeowner cannot receive several channels over the air.
Recently the Federal Communications Commission increased the number of channels, making it easier to show no effective competition, Mr. McCarthy said.
If the localities can regulate rates, they cannot be increased without action by the governing bodies. Ih that case the cable company may include very few chanSee
CABLE, p. A-2
81.1%