NEWS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE June 23, 1998

LIVE FROM TOWN HALL,

IT’S CARY TOWN COUNCIL!

CARY, NC -- Starting this week, citizens who subscribe to Time Warner Cable will have another prime-time program option--Cary Town Council meetings. Beginning this Thursday night, regular meetings of the Town Council will be cablecast live and unedited at 7:30 PM from Town Hall on cable channel 11. Officials plan to rebroadcast each meeting during that same week on Friday mornings at 7:30 AM, Saturday evenings at 7:30 PM, and Sunday afternoons at 3:00 PM.

"Bringing Council meetings to television is part of our continuing effort to keep Cary citizens well informed about their local government," said Cary Public Information Officer Susan Moran. "We don’t expect this project to affect meeting attendance," she added. "Rather, we believe that many more people who can’t attend the meetings either because of work or transportation or some other reason will now be able to know what actually happened."

In February, the Cary Town Council voted to appropriate $214,000 to install a television studio in Council Chambers. These funds came from cable TV franchise fees paid to the Town by the cable company for use of the public rights-of-way. In addition to designing, purchasing, and installing the new video system which includes a fiber optic link to the cable TV system, the funds were used to upgrade electrical power in the building to handle the increased load.

Because of the way Time Warner’s cable TV system is designed, customers in and around Apex, Morrisville, and parts of Holly Springs will be able to see the Cary meetings. This is in addition to the approximately 24,000 households in Cary which also receive cable channel 11 as part of their basic service tier.

###

PRIMARY CONTACTS: Bill Coleman, Town Manager, 469-4002

Susan Moran, Public Information Officer, 460-4951