§ 13-6. Infrastructure construction and changes.

(a)

Construction standards. Grantee shall not commence construction of a cable communications system, open or disturb the surface of any street, sidewalk, driveway or public place without first obtaining a permit from the proper municipal authority. If grantee fails to meet the conditions of the permit, the franchising authority shall have the right to put the street or public place back into the condition which existed immediately prior to use by the grantee at the reasonable expense of the grantee. Such permit shall not be unreasonably withheld. Payment of franchise fees pursuant to section 13-5 of this franchise agreement shall relieve the grantee of payment of any right-of-way fees (if any) charged by the grantor.

All wires, conduits, cable and other property and facilities of the grantee shall be located, constructed, installed and maintained in compliance with applicable codes. The grantee shall keep and maintain all of its property so as not to unnecessarily interfere with the usual and customary trade, traffic and travel upon the streets and public places of the Franchise area or endanger the life or property of any persons.

(b)

Conditions of street occupancy. All transmission and distribution structures, poles, other lines and equipment installed or erected by the grantee pursuant to the terms hereof shall be located so as to cause a minimum of interference with the proper use of public ways and with the rights and reasonable convenience of property owners who own property that adjoins any of said public ways.

(c)

Restoration of public ways. If during the course of grantee's construction, operation or maintenance of the cable system there occurs a disturbance of any public way by grantee, it shall, at its expense, replace and restore such public way to a condition reasonably comparable to the condition of the public way existing immediately prior to such disturbance.

(d)

Relocation at request of franchising authority. Upon its receipt of reasonable advance notice, not to be less than 30 days, the grantee shall, at its own expense, protect, support, temporarily disconnect, relocate in the public way, or remove from the public way, any property of the grantee when lawfully required by franchising authority by reason of traffic conditions, public safety, street abandonment, freeway and street construction, change or establishment of street grade, installation of sewers, drains, gas or water pipes, or any other type of structures or improvements by the franchising authority; but, the grantee shall in all cases have the right of abandonment of its property. If public funds are available to any company using such street, easement, or right-of-way for the purpose of defraying the cost of any of the foregoing, such funds shall also be made available to the grantee.

(e)

Relocation at request of third party. The grantee shall, on the request of any person holding a building moving permit issued by the franchising authority, temporarily raise or lower its wires to permit the moving of such building, provided: (a) the expense of such temporary raising or lowering of wires is paid by said person, including, if required by the grantee, making such payment in advance; and (b) the grantee is given not less than 30 days advance written notice to arrange for such temporary wire changes.

(f)

Trimming of trees and shrubbery. The grantee shall have the authority to trim trees or other natural growth overhanging any of its cable system in the service area so as to prevent branches from coming in contact with the grantee's wires, cables or other equipment. All tree-trimming shall be at the sole cost of the grantee. The grantee shall reasonably compensate the franchising authority or property owner for any damages caused by such trimming, or shall, in its sole discretion and at its own cost and expense, reasonably replace all trees or shrubs damaged as a result of any construction of the cable system undertaken by grantee. Such replacement shall satisfy any and all obligations grantee may have to the franchising authority or property owner pursuant to the terms of this section.

Also, the grantee must provide advance written notice of no less than ten business days to the property owner of the intent to trim trees on the owner's property, including the boulevard trees, with such notice to be mailed or notice hand-delivered to residence.

Further, grantee will remove all debris caused by the trimming from the premises of the property.

(g)

Safety requirements. Construction, installation, and maintenance of the cable system shall be performed in an orderly and workmanlike manner. All such work shall be performed in substantial accordance with applicable FCC or other federal, state and local regulations. The cable system shall not unreasonably endanger or interfere with the safety of persons or property in the service area.

(h)

Aerial and underground construction. In those areas of the service area where all of the transmission or distribution facilities of the respective public utilities providing telephone communications and electric services are underground, the grantee likewise shall construct, operate and maintain all of its transmission and distribution facilities underground; provided that such facilities are actually capable of receiving grantee's cable and other equipment without technical degradation of the cable system's signal quality. In those areas of the service area where the transmission or distribution facilities of the respective public utilities providing telephone communications and electric services are both aerial and underground, grantee shall have the sole discretion to construct, operate and maintain all of its transmission and distribution facilities, or any part thereof, aerially or underground. Nothing contained in this section shall require grantee to construct, operate and maintain underground any ground-mounted appurtenances such as, but not limited to, subscriber taps, line extenders, system passive devices (splitters, directional couplers), amplifiers, power supplies, pedestals or other related equipment.

Notwithstanding anything to the contrary contained in this section, in the event that all of the transmission or distribution facilities of the respective public utilities providing telephone communications and electric services are placed underground after the effective date of this chapter, grantee shall only be required to construct, operate and maintain all of its transmission and distribution facilities underground if it is given reasonable notice and access to the public utilities' facilities at the time that such are placed underground.

(1)

New Developments. The franchising authority shall provide the grantee with written notice of the issuance of building or development permits for planned commercial/residential developments within the service area requiring undergrounding of cable facilities. The franchising authority agrees to require as a condition of issuing the permit that developer give the grantee access to open trenches for deployment of cable facilities and written notice of the date of availability of trenches. Such notice must be received by the grantee at least ten business days prior to availability. Developer shall be responsible for the digging and backfilling of all trenches. The grantee shall be responsible for engineering, deployment labor, and cable facilities. Installation from utility easements to individual homes or other structures shall be at the cost of the home/building owner or Developer unless otherwise provided.

(2)

Local improvement district. If an ordinance is passed creating a local improvement district which involves placing underground all utilities including that of the grantee which are then located overhead, the grantee shall participate in such underground project and shall remove poles, cables and wires from the surface of the streets within such district and shall place them underground in conformity with the requirements of the franchising authority. The grantee may include its costs of relocating facilities associated with the undergrounding project in said local improvement district if allowed under applicable law.

(i)

Required extensions of service. The cable system as constructed as of the date of the passage and final adoption of this chapter substantially complies with the material provisions hereof. Grantee is hereby authorized to extend the cable system as necessary, as desirable, or as required pursuant to the terms hereof within the service area whenever grantee shall receive a request for service from at least ten subscribers within 1,320 cable-bearing strand feet (one-quarter cable mile) of its trunk or distribution cable.

(j)

Subscriber charges for extensions of service. No subscriber shall be refused service arbitrarily. However, for unusual circumstances, such as a subscriber's request to locate his cable drop underground, existence of more than 150 feet of distance from distribution cable to connection of service to subscribers, or a density of less than ten subscribers per 1,320 cable-bearing strand feet of trunk or distribution cable, cable service or other service may be made available on the basis of a capital contribution in aid of construction, including cost of material, labor and easements.

(k)

Emergency Use.

(1)

In accordance with and at the time required by the provisions of FCC Regulations Part 11, subpart D, Section 11.51, and as such provisions may from time to time be amended, the Grantee shall install, if it has not already done so, and maintain an Emergency Alert System (EAS) for use in transmitting Emergency Action Notifications (EAN) and Emergency Action Terminations (EAT) in local and state-wide situations as may be designated to be an emergency by the Local Primary (LP), the State Primary (SP) and/or the State Emergency Operations Center (SEOC), as those authorities are identified and defined within Part 11 of the FCC' s rules and regulations.

(2)

The franchising authority shall permit only appropriately trained and authorized persons to operate the EAS equipment and shall take reasonable precautions to prevent any use of the grantee's cable system in any manner that results in inappropriate use thereof, or any loss or damage to the cable system. Except for the extent expressly prohibited by law, the franchising authority shall hold the grantee, its employees, officers and assigns harmless from any claims arising out of the emergency use of its facilities by the franchising authority, including, but not limited to, reasonable attorneys' fees and costs.

(Ord. No. 12, 5th Series, § 2(6.1—6.11), 6-4-14)