When Carlos Graupera came to Lancaster City Hall last year to relate the Spanish American Civic Association's desire to establish a local cable television channel, his timing couldn't have been better.

The city was just beginning the process of renegotiating a franchise agreement with cable giant Comcast. It was the first time in 15 years the city had negotiated the contract and wouldn't be doing it again for another 15 years.

This evening, City Council is expected to approve the agreement — with a provision that SACA can establish an educational cable access channel.

The cable channel will build on broadcasting the Spanish American Civic Association has done for 21 years through WLCH, its Radio Centro FM station.

Enid Vazquez-Pereira, radio station manager, said SACA has had the television equipment for more than two years. Initially, the television channel will pick up some of the programming being done by the radio station. It will be mostly in Spanish, but some of the programming will be in both English and Spanish, Vazquez-Pereira said.

"I think that a lot of people who would be home during the day could take advantage of some of the preventative programs ... if they are not listening to the radio," she said.

Lancaster Mayor Rick Gray said that under the agreement the SACA channel will be available to all Comcast cable customers in the area.

"If you get Comcast, you'll get the channel," said Gray.

Also included in the contract is a provision to allow the School District of Lancaster to also have a cable access channel. Although the public school district is not prepared to start broadcasting, the channel will be available when it is, the mayor said.

The provisions to add the education channels did not cost the city anything, said Gray.

"In the negotiations, we saw a real opportunity to increase the educational capabilities," Gray said of the cable system.

It was one of the few things the city could seek in the negotiations, the mayor said.

Although the city does negotiate, it has little power to change Comcast operations. The city cannot control cable rates, for example, said Gray.

It did, however, negotiate a one-time grant of $129,000 to the city — and stipulated that the cost cannot be directly passed to ratepayers, the mayor said.

The contract also includes a more extensive "bill of consumer rights." Those rights to service will be posted in layman's language on the city's Internet Web site.

Gray said getting the more extensive rights and the education channels included was the best the city could do in the negotiations.

If the city had rejected the contract, Comcast could have gone to federal court to have a contract imposed.

"It wasn't a question of us rejecting it," said Gray. "It was a question of us trying to get the most favorable deal for consumers."

The contract is expected to be voted on by City Council members at their 7:30 p.m. meeting in Southern Market Center, 100 S. Queen St.

(Staff Writer Robyn Meadows contributed to this report.)


Staff writer Bernard Harris can be reached at bharris@LNPnews.com or 481-6022.