MI-Connection officials plan to meet with the towns of Mooresville and Davidson next Thursday to answer questions prior to the towns voting on an estimated additional $12.5 million for upgrades to the cable system.
The Town of Mooresville anticipates voting on the additional funding next month.
Thursday's meeting is scheduled to be held at the MI-Connection office on Broad Street, tentatively at 6 p.m.
The $12.5 million is in addition to the $80 million that the town originally borrowed to purchase the bankrupt Adelphia cable system. (See "More money needed for cable?" March 13.)
The $80 million that the Town of Mooresville bonded -- and Davidson guaranteed repayment of its share through subscriber fees -- was supposed to pay for 10,500 subscribers and system upgrades, with extra cash flow for the first couple years. But when it came time to close on the system, the towns discovered they would actually have to pay for more than 15,000 subscribers, which ate into some of the funds earmarked for upgrades.
In a nutshell, if the new cable system is going to finalize the upgrades that were originally planned and promised, it needs the additional $12.5 million to pay for them.
Stay tuned
Up next in the Report: An overview of the current state of MI-Connection and a glimpse into its future if the additional funding is provided ... and if it isn't.
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65 comments:
Please mark your calendar to review this issue in your column periodically. If you don't it will soon become smoke screned by bureaucratic BS and we'll never know the 'real' story or how much of "MI investment" is doing or how much tax money is being thrown into this black hole.
We remember Frank Rader saying that the cable company did not need upgrading, as Time Warner had done all the necessary upgrades. We also remember Frank Rader, before he became a commissioner, saying the company that received the Waste Water, etc. contract was an honorable and well known company and Mooresville should stay with their acceptance of same. I am para phrasing, but his words should be in the public meeting prior to the acceptance of this company. It is apparent that our Commissioners are either dumb as dirt or turning a blind eye to all projects that come before them.
Frank's Rader-Math has led everybody, commissioners included, down this path. He has led us all by the nose, boasting all along to anybody he can that he is the "numbers man" on the board. Just say NO to any more Rader-Math. We can't afford this particular "numbers man".
Since they don't seem to listen to what the public has to say about the cable deal, why are they even bothering to hold a hearing?
Hey, Jim! Thanks for your question. Actually, the meeting (from what I understand) won't be a hearing -- it's just a meeting for the MI-Connection folks to answer questions that the elected officials may have before voting on the additional funding. But the meeting, of course, is still open to the public.
Hey Jim.
Sounds like you may have some sour grapes with the decision...........
besides being a taxpayer!!
Anyway, when that decision was made there were rumblings of TW possibly putting CH. 14 on the MI-Connection. Anything working here still
This may seem like a rhetorical question, but when did the government get in the business of buying bankrupt companies? Is there any precedent for this nationally? I know the government intervenes sometimes to prop up a failing bank. The argument here is that letting the bank fail would have a widespread detrimental effect on the economy.
The reality is that banks realize that the government is going to save them when they make risky investments and they end up continuing their aberrant behavior. The market is smarter than the government. The result is that bank managers take on risky investments, make huge profits when they pay off, and let the government back them when the investments go bad.
What makes our local government officials think they know better than the market in Mooresville? The people are the market. All of our decisions with our dollars act like votes in a free market system and an individual always spends their own money better than someone else can.
Are we all such couch potatoes that the government has somehow classified cable as an essential utility that they must provide? Are we now at the point that we will just suck our thumbs and watch TV while we hand our responsibilities over to the government? Is the government wrong as they stretch and push to be our babysitter? Will we let a normal economic recession trick us into thinking that socialism is the answer?
It would be a real tragedy if we were to let our national inheritance of economic success be eroded for no other reason than our own apathy, one business at a time.
Well....yes....I have "sour grapes" on a few different levels. As I stated earlier, my employer is Time Warner Cable. I work for News 14 Carolina, the 24 hour news channel. So, thanks to the mayor's vote, I'm back to watching my channel on my laptop.
Some would say my other "sour grapes" are old enough to be wine (or whine!) by now. I had spirited discussions with board members for over a year and never really felt like I was being heard. I was amazed at the number of unanswered emails.
On a personal level, philosophically, I don't believe the government should be involved
in NON-ESSENTIAL services. If they wanted to buy a jewelry store I would've been there stating my opinion.
It's annoying to me that our leaders can decide to borrow $12.5 million MORE without any input from the public.
Jaime, do you know what time the meeting is scheduled for?
From what I understand, it's slated for 6 p.m. Town Clerk Janet Pope told me earlier this week that she had not yet been told the time of the meeting. But a commissioner told me today that he was told 6 p.m. If I hear otherwise, I'll be sure to post it here.
Thanks Jim for your reply. You seem to have always been upfront with your thoughts in your letters to the editor, etc.
Care to weigh in on as a taxpayer if borrowing the 12.5 is good or not? My understanding is that the increased amount needed is because of the extra 2000+ subscribers that were purchased at the buyout and the extra money spent then was really for the upgrades.
Since the $80m is already invested, would it not be prudent to protect that investment to finish the upgrades? Otherwise, it looks to this observer that the initial investment,right or wrong, may be in jeopardy. As a business person in Mooresville, I am concerned about the investment now that it has been borrowed and its solvency and longevity.
I would open this up to the other bloggers for comments also.
From what I understand, part of the $12.5 million is because they wound up with more customers and part of it is because the system is in worse shape than they thought.
When they split the nodes to decide which customers would go to which cable company (think of it as unravelling a ball of yarn and guessing how many threads are yellow and how many are blue)they wound up with more customers than they thought.
I'm not a cable engineer (nor do I play one on television) but it seems like proper due dilligence could've told them the condition of the system and also prepare them for the contingency of extra customers. I've read where MI-Connection people blame Time Warner for not telling them how bad the system is/was.
I'm a long suffering Adelphia customer (my internet hasn't gone out since last night) and I could've told them. At a certain point it's "buyer beware".
I've also read that they feel they can do the upgrades WITHOUT the additional money by using the added revenue from the extra subscribers.
I'm a little leery of handing over more cash (aka financial liability to the TAXPAYERS) when they haven't seemed to spend wisely initially.
Thanks for asking....other thoughts?
Well welcome to the Mooresville-Indiscretion Connection mess! Great comments on the necessity vs. luxury argument, but now that we bought the car, do we try to sell it "as is" and take a mega loss, or do we give it tune up and sell it or even use it as a cab? I agree with all that Mr. Rader is the person who conned the rest of the commissioners into voting for this deal,and they will pay come election time for sure, but why? The track record of the past and current boards in regard to choices of vendors has been bad to say the least. The professionals gave their opinions along with the citizens, but they did it anyway.(Oppositional Defiant?) I think there may be a stimulus somewhere in both of these deals $$$$$$$$$, but Jamie hasn't uncovered it yet. (I hope a song bird will read this and sing to Jamie, or just point her in the right direction.) Either way, the taxpayers are screwed! The cable deal was the exercise of a First Right of Refusal, thus fell under a contract for the town board to vote on, but why didn't we have a vote on it per ballot initiative? Why not a referendum? Why not a petition to stop it? Because "Time was of the Essence" so we had to act fast. Well, the Board of Elections will have to answer that question as to our charter for town government, but I don't want there to be a next time mess like this. Perhaps, it is time to place restrictions on the Board like the Mayor. How about a Town Charter Amendment that places restrictions like no contract for over 5 million dollars without some sort of voter input? The amount can be flexible in discussion, but these people are going to tax everyone out of this town? Even the "Townies" won't like the Rader tax hike that will be coming to them in the mail soon enough. We have to say enough is enough, but most of all we need a town board that isn't DEAF!(I'll leave the dumb and stupid to your discretion.) P.S. Since Mr. Rader knows best and is oppositional defiant, perhaps he should review the definitions of arrogant, smug, condescend,and pompous then he'll be a better person, but commissioner I doubt.
I wonder when 6:26 will comment on this issue.
Late spring evenings are good for wondering
I confess...my middle name
is "6:26". Mom and Dad generally just called me "Jim" unless i did something wrong...then I was "JAMES 6:26"....
And Friday mornings going in to long weekends are horrible for wondering anyway.
Government should never be involved in such things as cable. You could have saved the citizens of Mooresville a lot of money by using the $80 million and now a possible $12.5 for water treatment and lower taxes. Fees and taxes keep going up and the average citizen is losing ground fast especially with high food and gas prices. The real problem is the citizens had a choice on the cable and they decided not to vote. I don't know if it is true, but I heard the mayor does not have MI. I wonder if this is true and how about the 3 commissioner that voted for the cable.
Thanks again Jim for your thoughts.
I have asked MI-Connection board the question of doing the upgrades with the additional planned revenue coming in, but was told that it would be several years before the add'l revenue would be sufficient enough to handle. That the upgrades need to be done now for efficiency and best use of resources.
My question to them also was about the due diligence of not knowing the number of customers a little better. Their reply was that they were not allowed to investigate due to some of the quirks of the bankruptcy, judge, trustee, TW,etc. They always stopped short of putting any blame on TW, although I am sure they would have liked to.
More later, and keep everyone's comments coming.
Thanks to Rader, Carney, Herring, not to mention Thunberg, we are now in the hole with the cable deal. And what's the first thing to do when you find yourself in a hole? STOP DIGGING. Not another cent should be sunk into the cable deal.
It was also my understanding that the extra $ is needed to offset the "wrong numbers" provided by TW in the initial customer count. As far as the system being in such a bad state, i can only paraphrase the Bankruptcy Judge "it is up to TW to be a good keeper of the system and run it as if it was theres" There is no way this happened. A mainline cable feeding my neighborhood was cut and the fix was a band-aid since TW was not replacing any mainline cable. This was told to me by a TW tech.
A good question to ask the current status of TW Cable. Didn't i read that due to numbers they were looking at severing the cable TV side. May have been on cnn.com Is that what we need another time of indecision? If this is an untrue statement i will plea "old" as an excuse
I for one am on TW and the idea of Fiber to the House through MI is very appealing.
Dear 5:02....
By putting the blame for the "wrong numbers" entirely on Time Warner you are excusing the town board and the vendors they hired from doing their own due dilligence.
For 8 months Time Warner was the "operator" of the system. Please put yourself in their position for a minute....would you put a lot of money in to a system you didn't know you were going to own? Would you sink MILLIONS in to some one else's system? Being a good "keeper" of the system doesn't mean you should throw money out the window.
Within a couple of months of taking FULL control of the Huntersville, Troutman, and Statesville systems they were brought up to industry standard. Those folks now have video on demand, dozens of HD channels, and digital phone. I live in MI Connection land and I can't go 2 days without my internet dropping out....6 MONTHS after they took over.
As for the split of TWC and Time Warner...what exactly does that have to do with the current situation in Mooresville? Go ahead and plead "old" if you want to...
although your logic is beyond old....it's "Rader-esk".
Frank? Is that you?
Sorry no sir - i am not Frank, you should know Frank Rader is a MI Connection sub. he has said it many times
1. If TW would have treated it as their own as the judge told them, the system would not be as bad as they say, unless TW usually band-aids mainline cuts when they know the mainline is bad enough to be replaced.
3. One of the main reasons for the Towns to apply their "first right of refusal" was because of all the times the cable company was swapped around. i.e. LakeSide to Prestige to Adelphia to TW. Each time there is a time of indecision and that in any technology based industry is never a good thing.
for the record i for one can agree to disagree.
Has any tax payers money been used? Because i thought the "business plan" stated that would not happen?
Best Regards
10:23 - you are missing the forest for the trees. The will of an entire community was brushed aside by four elected officials when they involved us in the purchase of the cable system, despite a clear public outcry. They refused to listen to reason, and they refused to listen to their constituency. Their refusal stemmed from either extreme arrogance or extreme ignorance. Now, it appears that the rest of us may become responsible for the eventual consequences of those four officials' arrogance and/or ignorance. That is unacceptance by any standard, no matter how much rationalizing, justifying and "blaming others" (such as Time Warner) goes on.
Dear 10:23...
Sorry, though you know my name and my employer, I can not tell if you are a MI Connection customer or not. You could be Frank Rader, you could be Bill Clinton, I can't tell from the "anonymous" you post under.
If I understand your logic, Time Warner should have poured millions in to a system that they had no idea who was going to wind up owning. They actually were not appointed "operators" of the system but "caretakers" which means to take care of, not fix decades of mis-management. They have quickly fixed the towns that asked them to take over their part of the system. In the same period of time MI Connection has given me a chile recipe in a newsletter.
No tax payer money has been used
at this stage. Tax payer LIABILTY has been used. The town of Mooresville has borrowed a large chunk of cash based on this thing being succesful. If it isn't, it's the taxpayers problem. The question at this point is should they borrow more money (with us co-signing the note) because their initial "guess" of what was needed was wrong.
What do we do if three months from now they decide they need more because my block is particularly screwed up and they didn't know? At a certain point even Donald Trump runs out of credit.....and then it's everyone's problem.
Jim 6:26
Jim i also appreciate your point of view and your complete and well thought out opinions, its truly a breath of fresh air. But an opened ended what would happen if scenario isnt quite fair to bring up into conversation.
What if with some disapproval, MI Connection succeeds and offers its subs state of the art technology and pumps its revenue into the community via parks, greenspace, roads, bike paths, uses its fiber network to allow the town of finally take control of NCDOT spotlights, mass transit, recycling, the list could go on...
What if...
i for one hope they succeed so i can possibly get fiber to the home something i cant be so sure that TW will offer, and yes if it comes i will move to that neighborhood somehow
If i see the tides turn and they go back on the plan and decide to use tax payers money my whole opinion will change quickly
Have a great and safe Memorial Day weekend, whats left of it.
The previous commenter is clearly one of the handful of people in this community (and I truly mean a handful) who bought into the "pie in the sky" mentality that Commissioner Frank Rader infected them with. How do I know this? Listen to these words: "What if with some disapproval, MI Connection succeeds and offers its subs state of the art technology and pumps its revenue into the community via parks, greenspace, roads, bike paths, uses its fiber network to allow the town of finally take control of NCDOT spotlights, mass transit, recycling, the list could go on..." The bottom line is that this person is in agreement with literally gambling with OUR money, OUR credit, OUR assets, and OUR future for the sake of a PIE IN THE SKY dream. If we had all agreed collectively to this gamble, it would be one thing, but we did not. And we shall continue to not believe fast talkers like this.
What if--Time Warner knew all along that it was the strategy to let Mooresville purchase the system. They may have had the knowledge of the condition and didn't want to pay $.65 on the dollar out of bankruptcy, and thought, we'll let those suckers in Mooresville buy it, then when they get hit with public discontent and increased debt, we'll offer them $.10 cents on the dollar. The fact was pointed out that the constituents weren't behind the large expenditure on the fast moving technology play, this was evidenced by the first public meeting where there was not a single person who spoke in favor. The second public meeting there were 19 total speakers, 5 for and 13 against. The in favor speakers were a current M-I Board member, Ms. Underwood, Bill Morrow, and I forget the rest, but still the will of the people should have been respected. If the cable deal was so great, why didn't Mr. Rader form an investment consortium to take this baby down? I know why? Risky business with no guarantee of return. Instead they leveraged the town bond rating, and many times they have told us, in meetings and print, "We don't expect to have to go to the General Fund for financial assistance." Well pardon me for saying so, but this doesn't fall under any version of prudence I've ever heard of. Finally, it sure was nice how they let Davidson off the hook with no liability on the note, but they get to share the profits--Perhaps we need to replace the "for" commissioners and the Mayor with more fiscally conservative people.
There's no "perhaps" about it. Even if we don't get rid of all four, we will at the very least get rid of the most hard-headed ones, the ones who are absolutely unwilling to admit they screwed up big time. You can definitely include Rader in that short list. He is so married to his ego it's not even funny. This has got to be one of the most expensive egos we've ever had to suffer through in Mooresville, and we've had to suffer through plenty of them.
I attended all of the cable meetings. The will of the people was always, to borrow a phrase from Nancy Reagan, "Just say no!". I have long wondered if there was an ulterior motive by the commissioners and the mayor that we may never know of.
One of the politicians (I think it was Rader but I'm not 100% sure) said that if MI Connection is succesful they could use the money TO WIDEN HWY 115. At that moment I should've asked what he was smoking but I remained respectful and let it go. (Have you priced highway construction lately?)
So....using the logic that we need to support MI Connection to be good citizens, since if it fails it'll hit our checkbooks, does it make sense to ignore the Windstream internet-phone-dish bundle offer I get in my mailbox 3 times a week? They are now promising 6MB downloads (about 5MB more than I get now with MI) and I could save about $25 a month.
Anyone have any experience with Windstream/Dish Network? Unlike our politicians, I tend to be a cautious customer and want to know just what I'm buying BEFORE I BUY IT.
And as for the "fiber to the home", even with another $12.5 million MI Connection has NO INTENTION of delivering that to my 30 year old house in Mooresville. That would be for new construction only.
My bet is by the time Mr. Rader is on the ballot, the town will have long ago forgotten who dragged us in to this mess.
Jim 6:26
Jim,
After several replies to my initial post, I am still waiting for an honest to goodness yes/no or maybe answer to your thoughts on whether the additional 12.5M would be a good investment on top of the other 80M already borrowed. You have spoken around it like a good company man. You also are a citizen/taxpayer of Mooresville and have always represented yourself as a no nonsense person. What do you say?
There are enough of us in the community who will never forget who dragged us into this mess to make darn sure everybody else doesn't forget either. Don't you worry about that. The only way out of this is to sell the whole darn system to someone who is a bigger sucker than we were.
Hello 3:20...
I'm sorry...it was not my intention to dance around the "should we or shouldn't we drop more money in to this hole" question. It is a difficult decision and I've heard a mix bag of facts. (Can they do the upgrade without the additional money...I've heard they could, others have heard differently.)
Given what I know, as a TAXPAYER I would have to say "NO". The people who dragged us in to this thing promised us it was a cash cow. In private industry you don't get a financing "do-over". You make a business plan based on doing due dilligence and you live (or die) on your work. Why didn't they go for more financing during the 4 month transition period when it was obvious that there were more subs? Obviously they must have felt that they didn't need it at that time.
All too often in government the solution is to just simply "print more money". I have not heard the case for "it will fail without this money" so I have to say "NO" at this point.
Clear enough?
Jim 6:26
Thanks Jim,
Crystal clear. It looks like we have been hearing similar comments
and the onus is on the MI-Connection Board to prove the need for more borrowing. What happens if the money is not passed by either board? These questions and numbers must be laid out for everyone to see. The bigger question would be if it is proven to need to be done, would anyone agree(public) that the prudent thing to do would be to borrow the money. I am not sure a sale of the system at this time would be appropriate financial wise. But eventually .......
Also, in response to 5-25-08 12:32pm, "Why didn't Mr. Rader get an investment consortium of his own together to purchase the system?" I was in attendance at one of the joint meetings with all the boards and a similar question came up to why an individual wouldn't put a group together to purchase. I believe the answer we heard was that this was under bankruptcy protection, that either TW or those towns with the right of first refusal were the only two groups that had the right to purchase. The option for anyone else to buy was not an option. I also don't understand the statement about Davidson as I believe they are almost equal guarantors of the borrowed amounts. Is that correct Jim?
I believe Mooresville borrowed the initial $80 million, but Davidson has since signed a note guaranteeing their part will be paid back. I'm not 100% sure but I think Mooresville is responsible for Cornelius' portion of the debt.
Jaime? Does that ring a bell?
I just found out I won't be able to attend the meeting on Thursday. I have to go out of town to work on News 14's expansion to the coast. Ironic....by September we'll be in every market in the state except Asheville....and Mooresville!
Jim 6:26
I think it is time for Jamie to investigate M-I Connection. I'm sure she would have loved to been able to look at everthing in regard to CH2MHill, so go get them Jamie, but be careful, you're barking up Mr. Rader's tree, or maybe Mr. Rader should be careful of the "Keyboard Crusader!" By the way , do any of the Town officials get M-I and how much do they pay and what services?
13,469+ visitors to the Gatton Report, keep informing the masses! We need a party at 25,000 and send the bill to Bill.
Hey, Jim (6:26)! I stopped working for the Tribune right around the time that the cable deal went down, so I'm not sure of the specifics. But from what I have always understood, the Town of Davidson acted as a "co-signer" on the entire $80 million loan. That may be a very simplified version of it, but that's what I've always understood. I'll have to do some checking around on that...
Meanwhile, did I hear someone mention party ??? ;o)
I like the idea of a party at 25,000....would be kind of cool for all of us to attend a town board meeting and then walk out.....unless the 13,000 visitors is actually 6 people who check in often. (I do!)
Our leader promised an update of the current state of MI Connection and what happens if they do/don't approve the additional funding. Jaime?
Oh.....it is nice to know we're not ENTIRELY responsible for Cornelius share of this little venture....Davidson's checkbook came along for the ride.
Jim 6:26
I know for a certain 6 people, they do watch, except Rader, The Report is beneath him. I don't know though, Jim may have unmasked "The Rader" in sheep's clothing?
Hahaha. I'm workin' on it -- I promise! I'm waiting to have one little, bitty "fact-finding" conversation. Once that's complete, the information is all yours!
The Report is "beneath Rader"?? I think it's the other way around. Rader is beneath the Report. Pretty soon we'll all be saying "Frank Who???" Rader had stars in his eyes with this losing cable deal, and his Davidson College degree wasn't enough for him to see that. He got a couple of others on his tiny bandwagon and the rest is going to be sad history.
Like many people in Mooresville, I am thankful for this blog as a place where the public can stay informed about what is really happening in Mooresville. I was one of those who spoke out against government owned cable at a public hearing. My speech was given to the deaf ears of Mayor Bill Thunberg and three commissioners who had clearly already made their decisions. Regardless of the profitability of the system, one thing that will not change is the fundamental problem: the government's ownership and control of the major media and communication outlet in the area. As someone has asked, where is the live coverage of our town board meetings? Where are the public access channels that would allow people like Jaime Gatton to host shows that may be critical of the local government? Who decides what TV channels are broadcast on the cable? Is the government disseminating pornography when it provides internet service upon which pornography is widely available? Is the government promoting one form of religion or another depending on who has access to broadcast their religious services on cable? These issues seem like minor issues right now when compared with the cost. But these are large issues, particularly in a town like Mooresville where some government and community leaders don't have a great track record when it comes to encouraging freedom of speech and freedom of the press. But, back to the cost. Somebody simply did not do their due diligence. Or maybe they did, like the Bush administration in the Iraq war, and went ahead and did the deal anyway, because they were going to do it come hell or high water, no matter what the evidence showed.
And now there's 7!!
Thank you, Jaime, for being the voice for the collective conscience of this community...
Jamie, thanks and keep the info flowing on "Frank's Folly!"
Jaime,
Thanks for your efforts in trying to seperate the facts from the spin.
Good luck....I look forward to the update.
Jim 6:26
Jim, 6:26, or whatever,
I can't believe you would even go there with spin factor!!!
Oh c'mon....I didn't actually say "Spin Factor"! That would've been an insult to Jaime's vast journalistic skills.
There's a hilarious clip on You Tube about Mr.O'Reilly's infamous meltdown from his Inside Edition days...some guy edited in the stage manager's comments....funny stuff.
Just Jim
I wonder how much M-I will ask for when all T.V.'s have to go digital?I guess then I'll have to wait for "Raders of the Lost Cable System" to come out on DVD.(Sorry, just spinning,one too many cups of coffee.)
I hope people also won't forget who broke that tie that got us into this unholy mess. Bill Thunberg had a golden opportunity to save us from the folly of three misguided commissioners. Instead, it may very well be that he was leading the charge behind the scene.
Re: Cliff
Some of your questions were answered at the meetings.
1.Who decides what TV channels are broadcast on the cable?
Town of Mooresville decided not to have any officials as MI Board members for the very reason of staying out of "what goes on TV" The answer to what goes on TV from what i heard is "the subscriber".
2.where is the live coverage of our town board meetings? Where are the public access channels that would allow people like Jaime Gatton to host shows that may be critical of the local government?
Local Origination does not fall out of the sky as well as town channel. They must take more than 100 or so days. BTW i looked over the FY08-09 Proposed Budget and it shows a line for PC for MI Connection Channel for Town Use.
3. Is the government disseminating pornography when it provides internet service upon which pornography is widely available? WOW just WOW!
late Justice Potter Stewart said it best in 1973 "“I shall not today attempt further to define [obscenity]; and perhaps I could never succeed in intelligibly doing so. But I know it when I see it….”"
The term “pornography” has no well-defined meaning, certainly no legal definition. And if a Supreme Court justice had trouble defining the nature of sexually explicit material, how easy is it for the rest of us—each of whom looks at the world in a different way?
4. Is the government promoting one form of religion or another depending on who has access to broadcast their religious services on cable?
Did you type this while giggling like a 1st grader? Surely this was a feeble attempt at some type of slap stick humor.
Thursday is just a couple days away
Hey, can somebody remind me how many towns started out wanting in on this deal? I seem to recall it was a bunch and one by one they dropped out until it was just Davidson and us left? Anybody got a little history on that?
The one pushing the idea is usually the one left standing, and as for 5/27-11:22, you seem to have alot of information regarding the cable system. The amount of information seems to indicate that you are either a "M-I Cable Junkie," or a commissioner who would have been presented with a copy of the budget,etc,. Although you may try to trivialize Mr. Homesley's comments(giggling), these are serious questions to alot of citizens. I don't feel very good inside that MY tax dollars are killing Iraqi civilians in the way of bombs, but as with that, I didn't have a say. As for religion, the more the better, but MARK MY WORDS, we will see some sort of show by the Mooresville Government under the guise of "Open Communication" which will be "Frank's Chat" or "Erskine's Muses" or even "Bill's Bull____" to introduce the town's propaganda into the masses, since the Town Voice sure as heck isn't doing it well it enough, and another thing will occur, the satellite sales will go totally out of the roof! I have an idea, we could call the town show the--"The Bull___ Zone" or "That's Rain on Your Leg" just an idea.
These cable comments are laughable. Give the cable deal a chance before you bite its head off. So the Cable company needs upgrade, name something that involves technology that doesn't need upgrades. Last time I checked the cable deal was bond funded and the bond payments would come from cables sales. My cable and internet bill is roughly around $100.00, now multiply that out among the households in Mooresville. Like all government project things move slow, give a cable a year and if it isn't work then bash it.
And Cliff, come on pornography and religion, lets be serious, do you think that there is a cigar smoke filled room that decides what religion goes on t.v and what website are available for citizens to view. Maybe if you got off the pornography sites, you would see that the internet is full of news, sports, weather, and even blogs. Who do you think is killing newspapers, its the internet, grandpa!
Interesting that 9 months after the vote this decision is still inspiring heated debate.
As for 7:52's comments to multiply the number of households in Mooresville by $100...that's a little simple. Not all houses have MI Connection. They are getting a pretty heated press from Windstream/Dish Network. (As I said before...I get 3 letters a week telling me how wonderful they are.)
The vast majority of your cable bill goes for programming....ever wonder who pays $25 million a year ballplayer salaries? ESPN, and then in turn, you do.
I look forward to Jaime's follow up. I get the feeling she has introduced some elected officials to the blog while doing her research.
Welcome fellas.....oh...and thanks in advance for the tax, water, and sewer increase.
Jim
My comments are addressed to the person who posted his/her comments on May 27, 2008 11:22 PM.
I specifically take issue with this particular person's response to questions posed by a previous poster, specifically this question:
"Is the government promoting one form of religion or another depending on who has access to broadcast their religious services on cable?"
11:22's response to this question was: "Did you type this while giggling like a 1st grader? Surely this was a feeble attempt at some type of slap stick humor."
Sir or madam, as a Jewish person living in the southern Bible Belt, I can tell you there is nothing to giggle about in this matter. I and many others like me take "separation of church and state" very seriously. From the flip tone of your response I pray that the other posters' suspicion that you may indeed be a city council commissioner is not a fact. For if it is, we have much larger problems than the unpopular cable purchase.
I love this, for everyones information, I bundled with Winstream, and the only reason I have a landline now is for my alarm system. I download movies on my laptop using wireless, and that is also where I gain much of my news. I could care less about this damn cable system except for the fact it was done contrary to public sentiment and eventually, I will pay for cable through the General Fund because of some suckers bright idea for Mooresville. MARK MY WORDS, this cable "deal" and the bottomless sewer system will bankrupt this town. As for comments about Mr. Homesley visiting pornographic sites, that is not part of public discourse and should not be used as a "cheap" shot. If you can't defend and/or forward your position through decent language, don't participate.
I, too, was very put off by certain comments made by May 7th at 11:22 p.m. (I'm assuming this is the same poster as May 28th at 7:52 p.m.) One commenter has since stated that separating church and state is not something to laugh and joke about. I agree. And I also think neither is pornography. Homesley asked the tough question about how we may indirectly be disseminating pornography because we own the cable system. I have two young daughters and I don't take this lightly as did the commenter on May 7th. He acted shocked that this question would even be asked, saying "WOW JUST WOW". What does that mean exactly? Pornography is a scourge in our society. Who is this person who is making light of this very serious question? If he is just a regular citizen, that's one thing. But if he is a commissioner, that's a whole different ballgame.
I'm LOLing bigtime. I just read the guy who wrote this "These cable comments are laughable. Give the cable deal a chance before you bite its head off. So the Cable company needs upgrade, name something that involves technology that doesn't need upgrades." You might as well have Frank Rader tattooed on your forehead buddy. Only he would be telling us that a $12.5 million "upgrade" on something we didn't want in the first place is just another walk in the park. I'm laughing alright.
Cliff might be the one laughing right now, he may be researching "Internet Libel" or "How to subpeona someones ISP address?" He may be looking at a way to break out nationally with a case that will bring Internet Free Speech/Libel certiorari and really have the last laugh. But no, I doubt it, because I think Cliff is the caliber that knows it is the death throws of the cable supporters and he has better things to do than lower himself to address such trash. When people get desperate, they get nasty, but they can't change the fact that we own a cable system. I got a race horse I'll sell you, but you can't bring a vet to look at him, come on Town Board and Mayor--show me the money?
What "cable supporters"? You mean all FOUR of them? I can look to the east, I can look to the west, the north and the south, and there is not a single "cable supporter" in sight. This is autocracy - at its worst. One has to wonder what type of system has bred this kind of "leadership".
Hey 5-28-08 12:01am,
5 towns, 1 county(miscellaneous areas surrounding the north meck towns.
Troutman,Mooresville,Davidson,Cornelius, Huntersville, parts of Meck. County.
Troutman and Huntersville declined, Cornelius sold to MI connection for a lump sum payment, Meck County bowed out because all North Meck entities were not involved.
Glad to be of service.
Dear May 28, 2008 9:56 AM,
you are correct I am a mere citizen not a council member,
It was my attempt to say, there is no way anyone would or should dictate what religious programs are on TV and the mere question is in poor taste to think such.
I would have responded earlier but my cable modem was not working
Yeah, right. "my cable modem was not working". Boy you really take the readers of this blog to be fools don't you? Was that little comment supposed to throw us off track? Come on admit it. You have now managed to piss off somebody in the Jewish community and you're scared. Way to go, whichever elected official you are (it's a pretty short list). Geeeez. Gives us such a warm fuzzy and safe feeling about who's leading our great town.
My wife and I attend all Board Meetings, and trust me the lot of you bloggers are right on the money. You have to be there to see how Thunberg and Allies run this Town. I won't add much more, but you all should come to the Town Meeting when the vote is taken. I think we have them all cowarding in the corner, but if they are as stupid as in the past,and vote yes, come to see terrible history in the making.
PS Thanks once again,Jaime, you will be eventually responsible for having good ,smart, and qualified people running this Town.
I second that!!
Jamie Gaton for Mayor!
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