(A) Compliance with construction and technical standards. Grantee shall construct, install, operate, and maintain its system in a manner consistent with all laws, ordinances, construction standards, governmental requirements, FCC technical standards, and detailed technical standards submitted by grantee as part of its application, which standards are and shall be incorporated by reference herein. The grantee, through the system, shall provide uniform, strong signals which are free from any significant distortion and interference. The System shall be designed, constructed, operated, and maintained for 24-hours-a-day continuous operation. The system shall produce, for reception on subscribers' receivers which are in good working order, either monochrome or color pictures (providing the receiver is color capable) which are free from any significant interference or distortion which would cause any material degradation of video or audio quality.
(B) State of the art. The grantee shall construct, install, operate, and maintain its system in accordance with the highest standards of the art of cable communications taking into account the size and needs of the community as well as the costs and benefits to the residents. For the purposes of this chapter, state of the art shall mean that the grantee shall construct, install, and maintain its system in a manner which will continue to enable it to add new services and associated equipment as they are developed, available, and when proved economically feasible and marketable to subscribers to the reasonable satisfaction of the grantee. Such standards include but are not limited to the following:
(1) The system will be spaced to permit a minimum of 750 MHz operation and will be capable of utilizing state-of-the-art converters and be compatible with cable-ready television sets.
(2) The system will utilize converters which will make the system adaptable for the development of future services.
(3) The grantee shall maintain its system facilities in a manner which will continue to enable it to add new services and associated equipment as they are developed, available, and proved marketable to subscribers. The new services and associated equipment will be added to the system facilities when they are determined by industry standards to be technically reliable and adaptable to the system at a cost to the subscriber that is acceptable in the marketplace.
(C) Poles. Prior to the erection of any towers, poles, or conduits or the upgrade or rebuild of the cable communications system under this chapter, the grantee shall first submit to the county and other designated parties for approval a concise description of the facilities proposed to be erected or installed, including engineering drawings, if required, together with a map and plans indicating the proposed location of all such facilities. No erection or installation of any tower, pole, underground conduit, or fixture or any rebuild or upgrading of the cable communications system shall be commenced by any person until approval therefor has been received from the county, provided, further, that such approval shall not be unreasonably withheld and action thereon shall be taken within a reasonable period of time.
(D) Contractor qualifications. Any contractor or subcontractor proposed for work of construction, installation, operation, maintenance, and repair of system equipment must be properly licensed under laws of the state and all local ordinances.
(E) System equipment. The grantee's system and associated equipment erected by the grantee within the county shall be so located as to cause minimum interference with the proper use of streets, alleys, and other public ways and places, and to cause minimum interference with the rights and reasonable convenience of property owners who adjoin any of the said streets, alleys, or other public ways and places. No pole or other fixtures placed in any public ways by the grantee shall be placed in such a manner as to interfere with normal travel on such public way.
(F) Maps. The county does not guarantee the accuracy of any maps showing the horizontal or vertical location of existing substructures. In public rights-of-way, where necessary, the location shall be verified by excavation.
(G) Quality of construction. Construction, installation, operation, and maintenance of the cable communications system shall be performed in an orderly and workmanlike manner, in accordance with then current technological standards. All cables and wires shall be installed, where possible, parallel with electric and telephone lines. Multiple cable config- urations shall be arranged in parallel and bundled with due respect for engineering considerations.
(H) Construction Standards. Grantee shall at all times comply with:
(1) National Electrical Safety Code (National Bureau of Standards);
(2) National Electrical Code (National Bureau of Fire Underwriters);
(3) Bell System Code of Pole Line Construction;
(4) Applicable FCC or other federal, state, and local regulations; and
(5) Standards as set forth in the franchise.
(I) Non-interference. In any event, the system shall not endanger or interfere with the safety of persons or property in the franchise area or other areas where the grantee may have equipment located.
(J) Antennas. Any antenna structure used in the cable communications system shall comply with construction, marking, and lighting of antenna structure standards as required by federal and state law or regulation.
(K) OSHA. All worker facilities, conditions, and procedures that are used during construction, installation, operation, and maintenance of the cable system shall comply with the standards of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
(L) RF leakage. RF leakage shall be checked at reception location for emergency radio services to prove measurable interference signal combinations are possible. Stray radiation shall be measured adjacent to any proposed aeronautical navigation radio sites to prove no measurable interference to airborne navigational reception in the normal flight pattern. FCC rules and regulations shall govern. In no event shall grantee be required to exceed FCC standards with regard to RF leakage.
(M) Standby power. The grantee shall maintain equipment capable of providing standby power for a minimum of eight hours for the headend.
(Ord. passed 12-2-96)