Bardstown council votes to sell municipal city cable TV, internet to Spectrum
By JIM BROOKS
Nelson County Gazette / WBRT Radio
Tuesday, Feb. 13, 2024 — Following a closed executive session, the Bardstown City Council and Mayor Dick Heaton emerged to announce that the city will agree to sell its cable TV and broadband internet customers base and infrastructure to Charter Communications, which operates in our area as Spectrum.
The motion to approve the agreement was approved unanimously and came without discussion by members of the council.
Aaron Boles, the city administrator and chief financial officer, will be a guest at 11 a.m. Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2024, on WBRT’s “Bradford & Brooks” radio show to discuss the sale and what it will eventually mean to both the city and the cable TV and internet customers.
Spectrum already serves areas of Nelson County south of the Bluegrass Parkway.
No timeline for the changeover from Bardstown Connect to Spectrum was announced, though Heaton did state that a contract formalizing the sale would be signed at an upcoming council meeting.
Executives with the only Kentucky-based company that was interested in buying Bardstown Connect arrived at the council meeting early.
Tom Preston, CEO of DUO Broadband, and Daryl Hammond, DUO’s chief financial officer, both arrived at the council meeting early in anticipation of the council making a decision. Both men left the meeting prior to its start.
BOURBON CAPITAL EDC. The council approved the first reading of an ordinance that will create an “Entertainment Destination Center” in downtown Bardstown.
One proposed name for downtown EDC is the “Bourbon Capital District.”
The “Bourbon Capital District” will be a section of downtown where patrons may walk the streets w while carrying their alcoholic drinks with them. Businesses with the appropriate license will be allowed to provide patrons with a specially marked cup that allows them to walk within the designated EDC area with their drinks.
The times that drinks may be carried in the EDC will be noon to 9 p.m. daily.
According to a draft copy of the rules, drinks may only be carried from one participating restaurant or bar in the Bourbon Capital District and into another participating business. Participants must keep their drinks in an approved Bourbon Capital District marked cup.
All alcohol must be purchased from a vendor inside the EDC to be allowed to be carried outside an establishment. Participating businesses will be identified by a window cling or other marking.
The “Bourbon Capital District” boundaries will run from Second to Fourth Streets on Stephen Foster Avenue, including all parts of Court Square. The district will extend north on Second, Third, and Fourth streets to Flaget Avenue. The district will continue north on North Third to Broadway where it will include the boundaries of the Mayor’s Park.
GRANT RESOLUTION. The council approved a resolution in support of a grant sought by county government, the city, and BIDC.
The grant, for $1.26 million, would be used for road construction, site preparation and utility costs for a 34 acre site at the Nelson County Industrial Park. The site is the last remaining available tract in the industrial park.
The grant requires matching funds, which will be split three ways, between the city, the county and BIDC.
In other business, the council:
— the council awarded the bid for the Town Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant upgrades to Dugan & Meyers, who submitted a lump sum bid of $21.3 million.
— approved providing sewer service to a new area of the Woodlawn Springs subdivision that was formerly part of the golf course. The new sewer main will serve nine single-family homes.
— approved the chemical bids and vendors for the city’s wastewater and water treatment plants.
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