New deadline set for Marblehead community access channel board of directors applicants

MARBLEHEAD-Selectmen have extended the deadline for applicants for the board of directors of Marblehead Community Access Media Inc. for another month.The new deadline is noon on Friday, May 8. Board members plan to interview applicants and make appointments on May 13. Letters of intent should be submitted to the Board of Selectmen, Abbot Hall, 188 Washington St., Marblehead, MA 01945.So far the selectmen have received letters of application from Patricia O’Hare Williams and Phyllis B. Smith, who applied by April 10, the previous deadline.The new board, created when selectmen approved the bylaws for the corporation three weeks ago, will oversee local public access television. The new corporation was established after Comcast turned the local access studio over to the town.The Cable TV Oversight Committee anticipates that the town will be using three public access channels instead of the one it used in the past.Committee representatives Ron Olson and Nancy Marrs made a presentation to selectmen. Olson is a Lafayette Street resident who helped organize Salem’s public access studio. Under the bylaws three directors will be appointed by the selectmen and two more will be appointed by the committee and if the directors find it necessary they can expand to six or seven members.Olson said that Marblehead can swap local programming back and forth with other communities when they deem it appropriate. He predicted that it would be "self-perpetuating.""There are a lot of existing (corporations like this) and they talk to each other," Olson said.