Written by Jim Brooks
Nelson County Gazette
Tuesday, January 13, 2024 — The Bardstown City Council meeting scheduled for this evening at 6 p.m. includes an executive session to discuss “deliberations regarding the future acquisition or sale of real property by public entities” in private.
The notice does not specify the nature of the business, but one can assume it is related to the city’s desire to sell Bardstown Connect, a cable television and internet business.
The city has already received and opened bids from three companies. These bids and details have not yet been released to the public.
Find out exactly how the sale will affect customers, other than Mayor Dick Heaton making a statement at the November 28, 2023 City Council meeting about the need to sell the city’s cable television and internet businesses Very rarely.
But when you look at the three companies bidding to buy the city’s system, customers can expect to lose two things. It’s reasonable rates and excellent customer service. Both are locally managed rather than out-of-state headquarters. .
And, of course, the City of Bardstown has never had any business making significant profits from Bardstown Connect. Things change under new ownership, but this generally means increased costs for users.
Given how important broadband internet is to economic development, I wonder if selling off the city’s internet infrastructure is a good move.
More than 20 years ago, when I first became a City Internet subscriber, the Internet was a great value-added service offered by the City. But today, the Internet has become as important a utility as water, sewer, and electricity.
My daughter is a creative manager for a public relations firm based in Washington, DC. She has fiber broadband provided by a state-owned company, which allows her to work remotely from her home in the Botland area.
Twice in the space of a few months, construction workers in her area have cut fiber cables. This power outage left her unable to connect to the internet, forcing her to work at the public library for more than a week each time. Both outages were long. She was having a hard time getting in touch with real people.
In comparison, there have been two cases in recent years where cable Internet modems were rendered unusable due to power surges caused by lightning. Both incidents occurred on Sunday.
As someone who lives and dies by the internet, I frantically called support and found a human on the end of the line. Immediately they remotely checked my modem and told me I could take it to City Hall and they would replace it, which I did.
Is this level of customer service what current Bardstown Connect users can expect from a bidding company? Call me a pessimist, but I’m not very confident that the same level of service will be provided.
As the seller, the city has the right to select one of the three companies that responded to the request for proposals, or none of the three.
The mayor has cited the sale of Bardstown Connect as a way to help pay for upgrades to other city public facilities. And he correctly points out that upgrading systems is expensive and will continue to be necessary in the future.
Cities were established to provide their residents with services such as sidewalks, street lighting, water, and sewers that state and county governments typically do not provide. In the 21st century, that list also includes the Internet.
The City of Bardstown is in a unique position as the owner and operator of its own cable TV and broadband systems. I’m not saying it won’t be difficult to remain competitive in the future. However, I think you can adjust the price as needed to make the upgrade affordable while retaining many of the benefits of local control.
Before the City Council votes to sell Bardstown Connect, I hope it considers the impact of losing local control over such an important piece of city and county infrastructure.
Tomorrow is WBRT. City Administrator and Chief Financial Officer Aaron Boles will appear as a studio guest on WBRT’s “Bradford & Brooks” radio show Wednesday at 11 a.m. to discuss the potential sale of Bardstown Connect.
Listen live from 11 a.m. on WBRT AM 1320, FM 97.1 or the livestream at www.WBRT Country.com. Live video from his WBRT studios will also be broadcast on Bardstown Cable TV Channel 19, BRTV.
-30-
