Many New Paltz residents find that working with the sole cable provider, Spectrum, is anything but black and white. Customer service is infuriating, with issues such as attempts to secure credits for outages or the existing senior discount being mostly blocked by the company’s representatives. Members of the Public Access Committee secured approval at the February 22 Village Board meeting to start negotiating on a new franchise agreement, and to push for better service along with updated equipment for the public access channel. Since New Paltz residents labor under two governments for one community, and joint meetings of the two governments are essentially on hold, committee chair Anton Stewart presented to the trustees a proposal that’s identical to the one approved by members of the Town Council. The town franchise agreement is set to expire in March, but the last agreement covering village residents apparently expired during the second West administration. State law allows for the terms of that old agreement to remain in force until a new one is agreed to, much like how it’s done with union contracts.Â
With trustees approving the draft, committee members will now begin negotiating in earnest.Â
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