Monday evening’s Vance County Board of Commissioners meeting began with a public hearing regarding the renewal of Time Warner’s cable franchise agreement with the county.
Tim Pegram, the chairman of the Board of Commissioners, said the board’s intention was to approve the contract during the next meeting and have a public meeting during the Monday’s session.
County Manager Jerry Ayscue explained that it was necessary to have a public meeting to renew the contract. The current contract expires in November. He further explained that he and County Attorney Stubbs Hight have met with Time Warner, along with the city manager and city attorney, because the city and county franchise agreements are set to expire at the same time.
Brad Philips, a division vice president for Time Warner, addressed the board. He told the commissioners that the new contract addresses the issue of people in the county getting cable service. He also said that service standards have been addressed in terms of outages, billing questions, and technicians identifying themselves and using clearly marked vehicles.
Philips said Time Warner intends to maintain its Henderson facility. Also, the county will be able to periodically review the operation of the system.
Ayscue informed the board that the most frequent complaint he receives regarding Time Warner’s service is some county residents’ inability to receive it.
Commissioner Danny Wright asked if the required housing density per mile will be the same in the new contract. The current density requirement is 25 houses per mile. The density requirement determines whether a cable company is required to offer service in a particular region of the franchised area.
Phillips responded, “We want to narrow that window and extend service.”
Commissioner Deborah Brown asked if there were any plans to provide service to downtown Henderson. Phillips responded that his company would look at commercial service for the downtown area and that generally businesses are more interested in high-speed data service.
Brown informed Phillips that several businesses on Garnett Street have tried to get service and failed, her real estate office being one of them. She said the reason stated by Time Warner for not providing the service is the railroad tracks.
Phillips said that getting permits to cross a railroad takes some time but that the company will take a look at it.
Ayscue informed the board that the 10-year contract, the minimum length permitted by state law, is to the county’s advantage. “We’re pleased with that,” he told the commissioners.
Ayscue acknowledged that the housing density requirement is the last issue to be negotiated before a final contract could be presented to the board.