Idiots.
Waaay back in June 2006 we warned that any local government attempt to take over and run the beat-down Adelphia cable system would end in disaster. Disaster has come.
DavidsonNews.net is reporting that M-I Connection revenue woes could result in the town of Davidson laying off city workers in order to cover the losses. The town of Mooresville has already put $92.5m. into the system, yet the system lost almost $6.5m. in 2009.
We told you that an arm of the TVA could not possiblly run a modern CATV effort — especially the neglected rump of a system that Adelphia had in place. Sure enough, upgrade costs and customer retention are huge problems for M-I. And who is on the hook? The taxpayers of Davidson and Mooresville. Rumors are that Davidson could lose a chunk of a its parks and rec department in order to help pay for this farce.
The first thing that should happen is that the town managers of Davidson and Mooresville should be fired. This is outcome was absolutely predictable to anyone with an ounce of sense.
Update: Here’s Davidson Mayor John Woods making crap up about the “weak economy” ruining their plans. With only 15,000 subscribers, M-I would have to double in size to begin to be worth what the public paid for it, using the towns’ official $2800 per subscriber figure.
