By Mike Schnitzel
The 15-year franchise agreement will earmark $50,000 in Public, Educational, and Governmental (PEG) grants to the village, with an additional five-percent of Verizon's subscriber fees going to the village. Cablevision contributes an equal percentage of their subscriber fees to the village.
"I think the deal is a good one for Valley Stream," Mayor Edward Cahill said. "It will create competition and give residents a choice."
Steven Zahn, who served as Verizon's counsel, said, "the totality of this agreement is extremely fair to the consumers of this village."
Cablevision representative Jeff Clarke said he had concerns with some of the wording of the agreement, but that his company did not want to prevent them from coming into the village. "We are ready to compete," Clarke said.
Residents who attended the public hearing, many of whom were Verizon employees, were overwhelmingly in favor of the deal, with the single person who had objections also giving his approval. East Euclid Street resident Bill Freda had two concerns with the deal, which were initially brought to the floor of the meeting by Clarke. Verizon agreed to concessions in the proposed franchise agreement to alleviate those concerns. They will now pay for installing the necessary wiring to hook up residences 500-feet from feeder lines, as opposed to the 150-foot figure in the original agreement. They also agreed that if there was any damage to municipal property they would repair the property to its "pre-existing condition" rather than "serviceable condition."
According to Verizon, 86-percent of the village is currently ready to be serviced by Verizon, prompting some concern among the board. Verizon representative John Harrington explained that the portion of the village that was not ready to be serviced was from the Laurelton hook-up, which mostly serves Queens. When asked by Trustee Joanne Antun how long it would take for the entire village to be ready for Fios TV, Harrington replied that the remaining 14-percent should be serviceable sometime in 2007.
Public facilities that will receive free service from Verizon include Village Hall, Henry A. Waldinger Memorial Library, the clubhouse at Firemen's Field, all firehouses, Pagan-Fletcher Restoration, Valley Stream Department of Public Works facilities, and all schools in the incorporated village. North and South high schools, James A. Dever, Willow Road, Howell Road, and Forest Road elementary schools are not eligible for the free service because they are outside the boundaries of the incorporated village.
Copies of the franchise agreement between the village and Verizon are available to the public in Village Hall.
Comments about this story? Mschnitzel@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 265.
