Cable TV subscribers all over the country who are not set up for digital TV have been complaining loudly about losing analog channels in recent months.

In response, the Cable TV trade association, of which Comcast is a member, has just announced that effective December 31, its cable provider members would suspend further migration of analog channels to digital channels until March 1.

Meanwhile, the transition of broadcasters (NBC, CBS etc.) to digital-only broadcasting is set to occur on February 17, 2009. The date for this event was mandated by the federal government many years ago.

There is widespread confusion and anxiety about these major changes. Additionally, many community associations throughout West Boca are struggling with their cable future as bulk service contracts with Comcast are approaching expiration dates.

In response to these developments, the West Boca Community Council will host a public Cable TV Forum. The event will feature expert speakers. There will be ample opportunity for the audience to ask questions or make comments. Comcast has been invited to field questions about their service.

The Forum will be held on January 13 at the Boca Lago Country Club starting at 7:30 pm.

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Eight HOAs west of 441 have organized the West Boca Syndication Service (WBSS) to facilitate the sharing of editorial product.

The primary reason for establishing the WBSS is to make it easier for homeowner and condo association editors to gather enough suitable material to fill up their publications.
It is also intended to provide readers with a larger window about the area they live in.

The concept is to share articles originally written for one’s own HOA or CA newsletter or website that may have crossover appeal for other such publications in West Boca. Examples include topical articles about South County Regional Park, the new county library, area schools, security, transportation matters, changes in our commercial landscape, and just about anything the West Boca Community Council is up to.

Participating HOAs have each designated one person – usually the Board member responsible for communications or the editor of the newsletter or website – to be the liaison to the WBSS.

Each liaison distributes appropriate articles via email as an attached file to all other WBSS members. The recipients in each community then decide whether or not to publish them in their publications.

The WBSS is open to participation by every homeowner and condo association in Boca Raton west of the Turnpike. To join, simply send an email to lakesitenews@aol.com with the contact person’s name, title, email address and association name. The roster of WBSS email addresses will then be emailed back for use when disseminating articles from one’s own community to the rest of the group.

The idea for the WBSS originated when this writer visited a nearby community, picked up its newsletter, and spotted an article he had written for this blog about Fran Reich, the legendary founder of the West Boca Community Council.

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Imagine every home in your HOA community connected by a fiber optic network that offers a choice of many hundreds, if not thousands, of “channels” from all over the world, with a picture quality superior to anything available now. It would provide access to the Internet with blazing speed compared to Comcast cable or AT&T’s DSL. This same infrastructure could also support provide land phone services.

Your TVs, computers and land phones wouldn’t need all that cable and wire that snakes through your attic and perhaps even along your baseboards. All you have to do is plug in your device to an electrical outlet to get connected anywhere in your home.

A fantasy? Not really. This is where the future of home media is heading. It’s commonly called bundling. The technology to support this vision already exists, and more is on the way.

Newer companies with fresh strategies are mixing it up with aging media conglomerates like Comcast, AT&T and Time Warner. The challengers lean toward the Internet model, enabling consumers to select their own content from unlimited choices a la Google or You Tube. The other side is steeped in a tradition of pre-selecting the content we can access in our homes and is struggling to redefine its mission in response to the challenge posed by these upstart enablers.

The cost? I don’t know. But if you add up what you would pay on your own for cable or satellite TV, broadband Internet and land phone service come 2009, the available evidence indicates that a community-wide bundling alternative will cost less per month and the quality will be superior. Communities with a viable home media program that appeals to a growing number of prospective buyers who value such services will also enhance the property values within such communities.

It may prove necessary to invest in the startup of the new infrastructure. This is the pioneering path that Boca Isles South took a couple of years ago when their then-Adelphia contract expired. They installed their own fiber optic network. In effect, they cut out the middleman and became their own Cable TV and broadband Internet company, buying content directly from content providers or the growing number of resellers who represent them.

More recently, Boca Woods passed on renewing with Comcast and contracted with Hot Wire, a new enabler-type technology company which is installing a fiber optic network at no cost to Boca Woods homeowners. The company will recoup its investment in this infrastructure over time by providing a vast range of TV “channels” plus broadband Internet and land phone service that will be cheaper than any homeowner could get on their own even after Hot Wire takes its cut.

A number of other communities in West Boca are looking into similar alternatives to Comcast as their contracts also near expiration.

What direction do you think home media should take in your community?

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I live in a West Boca community with lots of lakes.

Over the last four years, our community has been engaged in an ongoing dialogue about the gradual erosion of our lake banks and what to do about it. Initially, burrowing catfish were blamed. Then various experts came through to study the matter more thoroughly. A gradual consensus developed that the erosion was mainly caused naturally by wind.

It has been much more difficult to come to a consensus on what to do about lake bank erosion.

A couple of years ago, the Board of Directors appointed a committee of homeowners to study the issue in-depth, assess the extent of the erosion and make recommendations to remedy the problem.

The committee presented a comprehensive report to the Board. They researched five remedial techniques – concrete mat, rip rap, bulkhead, filter fabric, and geo filter tubes. They recommended the geo filter solution because it was both the best aesthetic solution and the cheapest of the five methods. They urged that the geo tube solution be implemented throughout the community in one fell swoop at a cost of about $750,000.

Soon thereafter, Wilma struck and the lake bank project took a back seat to healing the community’s wounds from by far the most damaging hurricane in its 20-year history.

The lake bank issue got back on the front burner in 2007. A new committee was established and made a report to the Board similar to the previous one, but this time it framed the issue with even greater urgency. The Board decided to call for the required homeowner vote on a special assessment to fund a community-wide remedy. The vote will take place at the Association’s 2008 Annual Members Meeting.

About 2/3 of our lake bank linear footage abuts lakefront owner lots and the remaining 1/3 abuts the Common Area. However, the lake banks are 100% owned by the Association. Per HOA counsel, the special assessment must be levied equally on all homeowners, regardless of whether their lots are lakefront or dry.

Both lake bank committees urged the Board to adopt their recommended course of action because a) it would improve the aesthetic quality of our community to the benefit of all b) the continued deterioration of our lake banks increases our community’s liability and c) our Governing Documents obligate the HOA to do so.

Dry lot owners make up 73% of the Association’s membership. Some take the view that the aesthetic result of restoring our lake banks will primarily benefit the 27% of owners who own lakefront lots. It has also been noted that the Documents require the HOA to maintain the lakes, but does not specifically refer to the lake banks. Additionally, the obligation to maintain the lakes is contingent upon the HOA having the funds to do so. If the special assessment is voted down, it would appear that the HOA will be off the hook.

Some dry lot owners point out that lakefront lot owners have the right to irrigate their landscaping by drawing free water from the lakes, but dry lot owners must use municipal water at considerable cost.

Interestingly, all six members of the 2005 committee were lakefront owners. When the new committee was appointed in 2007, eight of nine were lakefront owners. The ninth had a lake view from the rear of his house.

The Board itself is made up of 60% dry lot owners. In a straw poll, 80% of the Board favored piecemeal lake bank restoration over many years, financed by regular assessments rather than doing it all at once via a special assessment.

It appears that those who favor a $750,000 special assessment face an uphill battle. We’ll see next month.

Meanwhile, what’s up with the lake bank erosion issue in your community?

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