Government : “Don’t take the sweetheart deal”

“Don’t take the sweetheart deal”, was the advice given tonight at the Vinton Municipal Communications Utilities Board of Trustees meetings. Board member Alan Woodhouse brought a letter from Centurylink which read in part, "You've been a customer for 43 years..." and then the letter went on to encourage him to sign up for a contract for his internet service with the company. 

No doubt many in the community have, or will receive such letters from the company as well as other rival services.

However, as many have heard the discussions over the year, the community is being advised to hold off on making any such decisions as Vinton rolls out our very own broadband service. 

The idea of the competition will be to promise you better service, but as many in the community have experienced, that is not usually the case from the big guys in the industry. This triggered the community into voting to provide their own service and begin to move forward. 

The board continues to move forward with the project and would like to encourage the community to hold off on making any long term commitments to outside providers until you've had a chance to see what the city will have to offer the community this year.

A public hearing was held on the proposal to enter into an electric revenue loan agreement. Many area residents were present at the meeting. All of the area residents present were in favor of the idea.

The first of the two meetings held tonight was held to meet State requirements before taking out any kind of financing for a municipal project.

The board did vote to consider the proposed Electric Revenue Loan Agreement.

At the second meeting which was also a special meeting for the Vinton Municipal Communications Utility Board of Trustees, the board considered a resolution to fix a date for a public hearing on proposal to enter into a telecommunications revenue loan agreement and to borrow under that agreement in principle amount not to exceed $6,800,000 for this project.

There was much discussion on the status updates of partnerships and marketing initiatives.

The board also considered roof repairs on the generation plant and accepted a bid to do so.