ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, September 19, 1996 TAG: 9609190029
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: PULASKI
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
Cable television subscribers in Pulaski may have felt better after airing complaints to town officials, but there is little the town can do about them.
Town Council held a public hearing Tuesday on renewing its franchise for Adelphia Cable to continue serving the town, as it has since 1986.
But changes in federal regulations during the past decade leave local governing bodies powerless to restrict rates, expand programming or seek a new cable provider.
The franchise is nonexclusive, which means another provider could theoretically come in and serve Pulaski. Practically, no provider will do that because of the investment necessary to wire customers, an investment Adelphia made long ago. Federal regulations prohibit towns offering more favorable franchise terms to any competitor of the company now providing service.
"We don't have anyone else knocking down our door to provide service," said Pulaski Vice Mayor W.H. "Rocky" Schrader Jr. "We're really tied up with federal law."
Complaints included snowy pictures, a need for more offerings, sports broadcasts being interrupted in midgame by service problems, and not having a local representative to call about such problems. A survey made by the town shows that Pulaski's basic service has 78 percent fewer channels with a 50 percent higher cost than surrounding communities.
"We're not going to be able to carry every channel that's out there," said Joseph Price, the Staunton-based manager for Adelphia's service region stretching from Winchester to Grundy and Elizabeth City, N.C. "There must be 150 channels out there right now." He said new broadcast technologies such as digital compression may allow Adelphia to increase its capacity in the future.
He said routing service problem calls to an office in another state is no more than what telephone companies did years ago when they eliminated local offices.
Adelphia also serves Pulaski County and the town of Dublin. It has been negotiating for three years for a single franchise agreement with all three. Dublin and the county have approved a joint franchise. Pulaski has until the end of the year to decide on what terms it will renew its franchise.
About the only things the town can control are franchise length and the franchise fee rate based on the company's gross revenues, as compensation for using town streets and rights of way. In Pulaski, it is now 2 percent which brought in $22,500 last year. It could go as high as 5 percent.
Price told council that Adelphia will add a community channel through New River Community College as part of its franchise agreement with Dublin and the county. He said he hoped to have the line in place in six months. A line will also be extended to the Southwest Virginia Governor's School on the Pulaski County High School grounds near Dublin.
Adelphia will also build a new broadcast tower which should improve signal quality, Price said, and possibly add C-SPAN, Arts & Entertainment and ESPN-2.
In other business, Police Chief Herb Cooley introduced council to seven newly hired members of the town's Police Department following interviews and a selection process lasting two months:
* Officer Russell "Rusty" David, a Pulaski native formerly with the Pulaski County Sheriff's Office, with a bachelor's degree in police administration from Eastern Kentucky University;
* Officer Amy Prescott, who has actually been with the department for more than a year working undercover in a drug case which recently resulted in mass arrests. She was recruited at New River Community College, where she earned an associate's degree in forensics science;
* Officer Todd Clayton, another Pulaski native formerly with the Pulaski County Sheriff's Office and with a bachelor's degree from Eastern Kentucky University. He learned only after he was hired that his grandmother was the first woman ever hired by the department;
* Officer Stacey Dixon, a Smyth County native with the Clarksville Police Department for the past three years, and a Wytheville Community College graduate who once had Cooley for an instructor;
* Officer Mike Mitchell, a former Montgomery County deputy with two years of college and 11 years of service with the U.S. Navy;
* Dispatcher Ray Pampley, who has taken classes at both New River and Prince George Community College;
* Administrative Secretary Melva Underwood, who holds a business administration degree from Bluefield State College and is a former placements and customer service manager with Western Staffing Services.
LENGTH: Medium: 83 linesby CNB