WPCNR WHITE PLAINS VARIETY. August 3, 2006: Greenburgh Town Supervisor Paul Feiner announced today that the Town of Greenburgh, Ardsley, Hastings-on-Hudson, Irvington and Tarrytown have reached a franchise agreement with the fibre optic upstart, Verizon on a 10-year Franchise agreement which will see Verizon agreeing to wireoffering residents of those villages and towns competitive programming and services (including 77 channels), with Cablevision agreeing to provide cable television service to all residents within five years.

Verizon will pay the villages and towns 5% of their Gross Revenues from subscribers they attract and a Public Education Government Access Grant to each town.  Verizon will provide three public access channels to serve the towns and villages and in theory offer cable channels competitive with those of Cablevision. The summary provided by Mr. Feiner did not say whether this included new production facilities, or whether the three channels would serve all five towns.

Verizon will begin the agreement paying the towns a Public Educational Government Access Grants, ($88, 843 to Greenburgh, $61,983 to Hastings, $41,322 to Tarrytown, $33,058 to Irvington and $24,793 to Ardsley, which separate from the 5% of gross revenues (no estimate of project gross revenues was given). In the future the Grants, separate from the 5% of Gross Revenues Fee, are pegged at  57 cents a subscriber for Ardsley; 60 cents a subscriber for Greenburgh, 75 cents a sub for Hastings, 55 cents for Irvington and 69 cents for Tarrytown.

Paul Feiner in a statement released to the media said, "I have been pushing for cable TV competition since the early 1980s. I believe that competition will result in better service, more options for customers and hopefully more competitive rates."

Feiner announced the Greenburgh Town Board will be holding a hearing on the agreement August 9 at 7:15 PM in Greenburgh Town Hall.