The Trigg County Fiscal Court heard its first reading — and voted in favor — of a 10-year, non-exclusive franchise agreement with Mediacom on Monday night, in what would essentially give right-of-way for the erection, maintenance and operation of communication lines and related cable services across the area.
Per language, this would include in, under, along, across and every which way through streets, lanes, avenues, sidewalks, alleys, bridges, highways and other easements, and could also include additions to existing towers, cables and other ancillary structures.
It’s a typical deal that Judge-Executive Hollis Alexander noted the county approved five years ago under similar terms, but this reading didn’t come without considerable questions.
At the forefront of discussion came District 5 Magistrate Alana Baker Dunn, who noted her family’s farm has had trouble with some of Mediacom’s lines being lower than the required 14 feet.
The 11-page agreement, indeed, doesn’t have any clarity regarding height accountability — something the fiscal court is rectified upon second reading.
Futhermore, Dunn added that in Section 3.9 of the terms — labeled “Required Extensions of the Cable System” — Mediacom is required as service manager to provide cable to all residences in a service area, and that a new unserviced area contiguous to coverage can lobby for distribution if its within 1,320 cable-bearing strand feet (or roughly one-quarter of cable mile) of an existing system, and 10 residences require Mediacom connection.
Dunn said she’s heard complaints of these responsibilities — especially in subdivisions — having been shrugged in the past, and deferred to District 2 Magistrate Barry Littlejohn, who had his own concerns.
Alexander said some of these questions will need to come before Mediacom representatives before passing the second reading, but that some sort of service needed to be provided for county citizens who don’t have many cable options at their disposal.
The first reading passed 6-1, with Larry Lawrence voting against. The ordinance will run as an advertisement in local newspapers before a second reading in the fiscal court.
