Or sentence a slice of Mecklenburg residents to service from a government-run cable TV outfit?
That’s what it is down to as the People’s Republic of Davidson has successfully bamboozled Mooresville into spending $75 million to buy the old beat-down Adelphia cable system and hire an arm of the Tennessee Valley Authority to run it.
The system is at least one generation — probably two — behind state of art and will require at least $20 million in upgrades to match the offerings that local Time Warner customers enjoy. Better still, the managers at Bristol Virginia Utilities have no experience running a stand-alone CATV system. The fiber-to-the-home system they run in Virginia was both heavily dependent on federal help on the capital side and, at least one study concluded, an operating subsidy from the city’s water and electrical service.
In sum, Mooresville and Davidson have bought a $100 million sink-hole. The town of Cornelius inexplicably sentenced its residents to be served by this abomination, which means the county will probably follow suit. There has to be some sort of political calculus driving this thing as on its merits it makes no sense. It brings a rapidly depreciating asset onto government books and dooms local residents to sub-standard service to no clear purpose. (Unless it is to serve as some sort of network backbone for a “free” government-run broadband scheme incubating in the PRD, aka Frisco By the Lake.)
Proceed at your own risk, wise Mecklenburg media titans.
Bonus observation: This sorry episode is more evidence than there is absolutely nothing that cannot be slapped on a Power Point gel by money men and consultants and made to “work” for government officials looking to spend money.
