Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Cable Company To Upgrade Rosston System

Cable customers in Rosston are being told not to pay their May bill because of poor service in April.

In addition, Bill Copeland, general manager of Community Communications Company, the cable provider, said the company will be making repairs to the system to bring it up to specifications.

He told the Rosston City Council, at its regular monthly meeting Thursday, May 6, the system does need work and basically hasn't been maintained since CCC bought it six years ago.

The company received few complaints from Rosston customers, he said, in April when only one or two channels were visible, but added customers are being informed they don't have to pay their May bills because of this.

The system, he said, has been losing money for several months as there are only 24 customers on-line, but the company doesn't want to shut it down.

If, after the repairs are made, the company can increase its subscriber list to 55 or 60, he said, there will be no problem in the system remaining in place.

Part of the problem may lie in the fact several people in the area have satellites for television programming and reception.

Copeland said his company can't compete with the sheer number of channels offered by satellite providers, but it can offer something they can't local network programming.

Rosston Mayor Lewis Jackson said the city could legally own and operate a cable system, having checked into the issue following the April council meeting.

Following the April meeting, Jackson contacted a cable consultant and had him examine the existing system.

Copeland said it wouldn't take a lot to overhaul the system, and agreed the city would be able to operate it in a good manner. However, he said, the problem would be in keeping it serviced, as someone would have to be trained.

The city, he continued, could hire someone to maintain the system and send them to Monticello for training by the CCC, should the city choose to try and take the system over.

An RF meter would have to be purchased, costing between $500 and $600.

However, he said, if the city did take the system over and ever turned it off, the CCC would want to be able to come in and take its equipment back.

Copeland said to his knowledge the system has never been serviced since the CCC bought it six years ago.

What the company plans to do, he added, is repair the current system, adding cable where there are gaps.

Once repairs are made, he said, a marketing team will canvass the area to try and double the customer base.

When CCC bought the system the house count in Rosston wasn't as high as it currently is, Copeland told the council. "There has been some growth."

Currently, CCC provides 21 channels to cable subscribers. Copeland said the company can add four more channels, drop Showtime as a free station and possibly drop the cost somewhat.

In addition, if the subscriber count can be at least doubled a truck can be sent to Rosston on a weekly basis for maintenance and service.

It will take about 10 days to repair the current system and change out the amplifier with a used one from Monticello. This, he said, will clean up the pictures on television screens.

"Were not operating another system like this one," Copeland said. "It's not fair to the people here the way things are being done. It needs to run more like Monticello, or we need to do something with it."

Large cable systems, he said, are a hot commodity now, but it's almost impossible to give small ones away.

The CCC owns some 30 cable systems in the state, with an average customer base of 100- 500. The largest system in the chain, he said, is Monticello with about 3,500 subscribers.

Along with the advantage of network programming, he said, cable can be connected to every television in a home for one price, while satellite customers have to have separate receivers for each set.

"The people here are pleasant to work with," he said. "They're very understanding and this is a bad situation. It's not what we thought would happen when we bought the system."

The council agreed to give the CCC the opportunity to upgrade and repair the system and see if it can increase its customer base.

Copeland will return to the council in June to discuss the company's progress in the matter.

In other business, the council was told a new meter has been installed in the pump house, but learned one of the pumps doesn't work all the time.

Jackson said the number two pump only works part of the time and needs to be repaired or replaced.

The exact nature of the problem is not known, but the entire pump can be replaced for about $5,000.

But, should the pump be the only thing needing to be replaced, it will run $1,950.

Water Superintendent J.D. Luck said he told the company to bring everything in case the motor and pump both are bad. The city will only have to pay for what equipment is actually needed.