2006-08-04 - Laserfiche WebLink

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market the property. There are no plans to evict any of the existing tenants. All business owners will be kept informed of the planning process and provided ample notice if a demolition or sale were imminent. Washington University notified the City of their intent to pull a building permit demolition regarding the of properties at 701 & 707 Eastgate and 6654 Washington. Generally, demolition permits are handled administratively. However, when a structure is in a Historic District the request for a permit is referred to the Historic Preservation Commission. In this instance, all three properties are in Historic District(s). The Historic Preservation Commission will forward their recommendation to Planning Director Walker. No permits have been submitted on any of these properties. The telecom industry is working hard to convince the U.S. Senate that they need video service. a national franchise to preempt municipal and state control over Ironically, this major effort in Washington is going on at the same time AT&T has approached us to discuss a franchise equivalent to our existing Charter contract. AT&T is willing to mirror our existing franchise fee, government access and CALOP contribution, in exchange for the use of our r-o-w for the direct video service. In this instance, AT&T is agreeing to all but one of the Missouri Municipal League’s (MML) identified talking points for the current legislation. The only caveat, #3, is that they do not want to commit to a front end build out. AT&T is already providing a type of video service in University City via satellite, from which we gain no income, and in fact, lose income from our Charter Franchise. Satellites hurt the City’s general fund. Having a franchise with AT&T would be good for University City. I will meet with area Managers to discuss the topic on August 11. I’ve included their information along with the talking points from MML and the currently proposed legislation. For reference sake, the summary of talking points referenced above is included in the text of the memo. Attached is a longer letter that the League sent to each Senator, along with information from AT&T. The MML is encouraging all elected officials to contact their legislators directly, Mike Collins, staff to Senator Bond, can be contacted at 202-225-5721. Jim Talent’s phone numbers in DC and STL respectively, 202-224-6154, 314- 432-5211. MML TALKING POINTS: 1. Most cities would love AT&T to offer high quality wired TV and High speed internet competition. We have never said “NO” to them. We want them. But they are saying “NO” to us unless we agree to everything they want. In fact, our cable TV franchises are not exclusive and the phone companies could have used them to offer service years ago. But they seem to want special treatment. But in exchange for using the Public Rights of Way, AT&T must meet some public needs just as the cable companies must. After all, they are not using land that they own.