48:5A-23. Application; filing; fee; hearings; notices; additional applications; decision by municipality; report; conditions; fees; disposition

a. Application for a municipal consent required under section 22 of this act shall be made by a CATV company by filing thereof, on forms prescribed by the director, with the clerk of the municipality, with a duplicate thereof to be filed with the office. The application filed with the clerk of the municipality shall be accompanied by a filing fee of $100.00.

b. Upon receipt of such application, the municipal governing body shall schedule a hearing thereon, to be held not sooner than 60 nor later than 90 days after the filing of such application. Said hearing may be adjourned from time to time, but not to any date later than 30 days from the date upon which it was first convened.

c. Notice of the receipt of such application, and of the hearing scheduled thereon, shall be published in at least one newspaper of general circulation in the municipality not later than the forty-fifth day prior to such hearing, and again not sooner than the fourteenth day nor later than the seventh day prior to such hearing. Additional applications may be received by the municipality until the fifteenth day prior to the hearing. Said notices shall specify:

(1) the identity of the applicant or applicants;

(2) the time and place of the hearing;

(3) the place at which and time within which applications filed with the municipal clerk may be examined by residents of the municipality and other interested parties.

d. The municipal governing body shall within 30 days after the conclusion of the hearing make a decision regarding the application or applications before it, and shall issue a written report of such decision, detailing the reasons therefor, one copy of which shall be filed with the municipal clerk and another copy with the office, which shall be a public record.

e. Pursuant to such decision, the municipal governing body may reject all applications before it or may issue municipal consents to one or more applicants. But no municipal consent or consents shall be granted unless it or they contain, singly or in combination, provisions for the eventual extension of CATV service, upon a reasonable time schedule, to all parts of the territory of the municipality.

f. For the purpose of defraying the administrative expenses of hearings held pursuant to this section, the applicant shall be required to pay to the municipality a fee not exceeding $50.00 per day of hearing or fraction thereof, according to such fee schedule as the director shall from time to time adopt by rule. Such fee shall be in addition to the filing fee required under subsection a. of this section; the amount shall be due and payable upon presentation of an invoice.

g. All fees and charges imposed under this section shall be paid by the applicant to the municipal clerk, for the sole use of the municipality, and the clerk shall report on and return to the chief fiscal officer of the municipality all such fees and charges collected by him.

L.1972, c. 186, s. 23.