Thursday, November 04, 1999
Middletown rejects countywide cable system
BY KEVIN ALDRIDGE
The Cincinnati Enquirer
MIDDLETOWN — City commissioners pulled the plug Tuesday on a move to link Middletown and other Warren County cities with Lebanon's municipal cable television system.
Five of seven commissioners voted to reject a proposal to study creating a government-owned regional authority that would provide cable TV, phone, Internet and other electronic services for residents.
Middletown joined Monroe and Waynesville as communities not quite ready to tune in to a countywide telecommunications network. However, the reasons for Middletown's fuzzy reception of the joint venture differed from that of the other communities.
Commissioner Robert “Sonny” Hill said some commissioners were turned off by the proposal because they believed Warren County commissioners treated City Manager Ron Olson and Commissioner Earl Smith “rudely and without respect” during a visit in which they asked for $800,000 for a proposed Towne Boulevard South extension project.
“I think some of the commissioners were perturbed by the way the county commissioners treated our guys,” Mr. Hill said. “I think that factored in to their decision not to vote for it.”
Carl Boltz, executive director of the Warren County Municipal League — the group leading the cable initiative — said Wednesday he was “stunned and disappointed” by city commissioners' decision to bail out.
Commissioner Jerry Banks, secretary/treasurer of the municipal league, has been an advocate of a study to investigate the feasibility of a countywide government-owned cable system. Earlier this month, he said he expected Middletown officials to jump at the chance to get aboard the cable TV bandwagon.
“It's a no-brainer,” he said two weeks ago.
Mr. Banks and Mr. Hill were the only two to cast votes in favor of joining the study.
“I told the guys you can't let your feelings on another matter interfere with the decision to join a project that we should be involved with,” Mr. Hill said.
“Hopefully, we can resolve our differences with the county commissioners quickly, because I think this is a good idea.”
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