Feb. 15, 2002 – Sen. Adelbert Bryan's persistence paid off Thursday, as he was told by government officials and telecommunication executives that St. Croix, as well as St. Thomas, will soon have live, gavel-to-gavel coverage of all Senate meetings.
Bryan, chair of the Senate Economic Development, Agriculture and Consumer Protection Committee, has been aggressively pursuing both the government and Innovative Communication Co., owner of the territory's two cable television companies, to set up a plan to provide St. Croix with the same live coverage St. Thomas enjoys.
At a hearing last November, James O'Bryan, the governor's assistant, told senators that the administration wasn't about to share its cable TV government-access channel, but that it was willing to assist the Legislature in getting its own channel on the St. Thomas/St. John and St. Croix cable systems.
On Thursday, O'Bryan told Bryan that "great progress has been made to advance to the goals we collectively set to upgrade the operations of the present government-access channels and to expand to another government-access channel to meet the needs of the legislative branch." Plans are on target to link the government-access channels to St. Croix Cable TV and Innovative Cable TV St.Thomas-St. John by this summer.
O'Bryan told the committee he has written to the V.I. Energy Office requesting an additional $100,000 on top of an existing $103,000 grant to implement the legislative portion of the proposal.
Samuel Ebbesen, president of Innovative Telephone, said the company will do the installation and absorb the cost, and he said he is confident the installation will be completed within 120 days.
Ebbesen also said that the V.I. Territorial Emergency Management Agency will be the applicant for a new FCC license to implement a two-channel, two-way radio duplex system to link the existing government channels and to expand into a new system for the exclusive use of the Legislature.
Keithley Joseph, executive director of the Public Services Commission, said the PSC will consider the matter at its board meeting on Wednesday. Under questioning by Sen. Celestino A. White Sr., Joseph said the PSC is prepared to approve the two access channels requested.
Although Bryan and O'Bryan have been at odds over the TV access issue, O'Bryan commended Bryan for staying focused on the issue like a "laser beam."
Also on the committee's agenda was the local situation vis a vis the federal requirement that public television stations convert from analog to digital transmission. Lori Elskoe-Rawlins, V.I. Public Television System general manager, again issued a plea for funding to proceed with the conversion for WTJX-Channel 12. She said $1.3 million is needed to begin the process.
Elskoe-Rawlins noted that the system has been requesting $4.6 million for more than five years to convert to digital programming. The Federal Communications Commission has set a deadline of May 2003 for all public television systems to be able to provide both analog and digital programming, and by 2006 they must provide exclusively digital programming, she reminded the senators.
Bryan suggested to Elskoe-Rawlins that she again provide documentation to the 24th Legislature so that it can look for a funding source.
Committee members Bryan, Donald "Ducks" Cole, Roosevelt David, Norma Pickard-Samuel and White attended the meeting. Sens. Emmett Hansen II and Norman Jn Baptiste were absent.
