Bardstown City Council approves cable TV, internet service price changes

By JIM BROOKS
Nelson County Gazette / WBRT Radio

Tuesday, July 23, 2019 (Corrections applied Thursday, July 25, 2019, 12:30 p.m.) — The employees of Demaree & Hubbard were honored Tuesday night by Mayor Dick Heaton and the Bardstown City Council on the occasion of the company’s 100th anniversary in business.

Heaton read a resolution recalling the company’s founders and the company’s continued dedication to service to the community.

INTERNET SERVICE PRICE HIKE. City of Bardstown internet customers who live outside the corporate city limits and do not subscribe to city cable TV services will see their monthly bill increase by $4.75 effective Sept. 1, 2019.

For customers who use both the internet and cable TV services, the changes in price schedules for both services will leave their total monthly bills unchanged.

The ordinance approved by the council Tuesday creates a new internet pricing structure that raises the rates for county residents. The change creates a two-tier pricing structure for its internet service that resembles the city price structure for its cable TV service that also has county residents paying higher rates than city residents.

All internet customers will see their access speeds double at no extra charge. The minimum internet speed of 10 Mb/s will jump to 20 Mb/s. The other, faster speeds of 25, 50 and 100 Mb/s will increase to 50, 100 and 200 Mb/s.

City systems engineer Nahom Ayele said that with the doubling of speeds, internet customers will have the option to save money by reducing their internet speed to leave it the same as it is now, rather than taking the faster speed.

For example, customers who current have 10 Mb/s service can forgo doubling their internet speed to 20 Mb/s, and in the process, save $5 a month on their bill.

For internet customers with faster internet speeds — 25, 50 or 100 Mb/s — the savings are $10 a month if you leave your service speed the same and do not take advantage of the higher speed internet.

The internet service price changes will require final approval by the council at its next regular meeting.

CABLE TV RATE CHANGES. Cable TV customers served by the city will see only minor changes in their monthly cable TV bills.

For city customers, the basic cable TV customer charge will increase 11 cents.

For economy tier subscribers, their monthly bill will drop by $1.43.

The monthly cost of full expanded basic cable TV customers — providing channels 23-77 — will increase by 49 cents. The other digital packages and specialty channels will either stay the same or see a minor reduction in cost.

For cable TV customers outside the city limits, they will see their customer charge drop by $3.69.

The economy tier monthly rate drops from $33.99 to $32.56. Full expanded basic cable TV also increases by 49 cents.

The other digital packages and specialty channels will either stay the same or see a minor reduction in cost.

The cable TV price changes will require final approval by the council at its next regular meeting.

COUNCIL MEETING TIME CHANGE. The council gave final approval of a change that will move all of its regular meeting times from 7 p.m. to 6 p.m. The monthly working session start time will also move, from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m.

The council also gave final approval of updates to its classification and compensation plan to reflect changes in job title and positions at City Hall.

In other business, the council:

• approved a request from DMK Development for a waiver of the city’s sidewalk requirements for the new assisted living planned for the area of Templin Avenue and Lincoln Way. Though it approved the waiver, the council reserved the right to impose the sidewalk requirement in the future should the opportunity arise that will make the addition of sidewalks feasible.

• approved the street resurfacing bid of $85 per ton of asphalt. The city plans to pave 5.8 miles of city streets using a total of 6,350 tons of asphalt.

• approved resolutions that allow the city to move forward with its request for $5.4 million in financing from the Kentucky Infrastructure Authority. The funds will go toward sewer infrastructure upgrade projects.

• discussed adding lighting to the three “Welcome to Bardstown” signs.

• appointed Fred Hagan to the Bardstown Board of Adjustments.

• appointed Mike Boone to the Bardstown Cemetery Committee.

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