Poor cable TV rankles council
Alto mayor says citizens want a new cable provider
BY LELAND ACKER

Poor cable television reception was a major topic of discussion at Monday's regular meeting of the Alto City Council.

"I'll be honest," Mayor CareyPalmer told Rapid Cable representatives Ronnie Stafford and Jason Dennis, "We get calls. They want us to do away with the current service and find something else. We do not have a franchise agreement with Rapid Cable, and we did not receive notice that Rapid Cable purchased Cebridge (in Alto, as per the agreement)."

Among the complaints against the cable service, city council members cited poor reception quality and poor customer service when problems were called in.

"Until four, five or six people complain, the service isn't there," said Councilman Monty Collins.

Councilman Earl Clark complained when residents call the cable company to have their service repaired, they can be placed on hold for up to 30 minutes.

"I don't intend on waiting 30 minutes to get someone on the phone," Councilman Clark said.

The representatives from Rapid Cable promised to investigate the problems with the reception and with telephone response times.

"We're going to run you out of business if you don't improve on your service," Councilman Clark said.

The council discussed leniency on utility bills, with Councilman Clark advocating strict cut-off deadlines.

"If people can not afford their utility bills, we don't need to give an extension or collect partial payment," he said. "I feel sorry for the people, and I'd like to get on that plan too."

Councilman Clark shared a story of when he lived in Houston, and leniency was not extended to him when he was in the hospital.

Charlie Luse, utilities director, said enforcing firm cut-off dates was not feasible.

"If you do this, we'll have to cut off everyone, churches, businesses, everyone," he said. "There have been times a business has needed to wait until some customers have come in. There have been churches that have been late."

Mr. Luse found an unusual ally in Mayor Palmer on this issue, who explained to the council that utilities personnel were firm with those who are habitually late with their payments, but granted extensions to those who had extenuating circumstances.

Both Mayor Palmer and Mr. Luse reported the new approach was working and collections were increasing.

"We've been tightening down and it's been working, we should continue on as we are," Councilman Collins said, making a motion that each collection case be judged on its own merit. The council approved the motion 4-1, with Councilman Clark being the lone dissenting vote.

In other business, the council decided to collect bids on repairing the old city hall building, approved interlocal agreements with Cherokee County for health department inspections and street repair, nominated Municipal Judge R. E. Christiansen to the board of directors for the Cherokee County Appraisal District, approved Judge Christiansen to launch a municipal court Web site, gave Judge Christiansen the authority to hire a clerk of his choosing, adopted an ordinance authorizing animal control personnel to seize loose running livestock and write citations to the owners of that livestock, and raised the salaries of Mr. Luse and City Administrator Debra Dannelley. Mr. Luse's new salary is $33,000 per year and Mrs. Dannelley's new salary is $31,050 per year.

The council voted to designate Friday and Saturday, Oct. 26-27 as Alto Clean-up Days, at the request of Councilman Collins. All trash, with the exception of household trash, liquids or paint. All metal will be set aside for later pickup as well as batteries and mattresses. Tires will be collected with a $2 deposit for passenger vehicle tires and $3 for highway truck tires.

All council members and Mayor Palmer were present at the meeting. The next regular meeting of the Alto City Council will be Nov. 12 at Alto City Hall.