Belington May Get Upgrade to Its Cable Service
By BEN SIMMONS, Staff WriterCable customers in Belington could be seeing some major changes over the next two years. City Council voted Thursday to accept the cable franchise transfer from Rapid Cable to Shentel Cable. The contract is contingent upon the company making upgrades to the city's governmental channel.
Willie Parker, vice president of sales for Shentel Cable, explained the company's proposal to council. He said the company plans to make a $750,000 upgrade to the system to provide "hundreds of channels" along with High Definition service and digital video recording. He said future plans could include offering high-speed Internet access.
Parker said the company would need to make a network upgrade and could begin work next spring. He said the upgrades could take about two years to complete.
Members of council said they are willing to welcome a new cable system, but would like to see a more accessible governmental channel.
Mayor Larry Carpenter said he is concerned with how the government channel currently works. He said it is difficult to change the programming on the station. If upgraded, he said the channel could be a major asset to the citizens. He said it could serve as a good source of public information regarding events in town.
"Right now we have trouble even getting on the station," Carpenter said. "There are several different things we could use it for, for the community. If any organization wanted to use it to get out information, like the Belington Revitalization Committee or other groups, it would be great for that. I think it would help the public know what is going on in the community."
Carpenter asked that Parker include proposed changes to the governmental channel written into the contract.
Council unanimously voted to approve the contract transfer contingent upon the governmental channel upgrade. Parker said he would have a reworked contract submitted to the city within a few days.
In other council news, Belington Revitalization Committee Chairman Chris Sauerwien appeared before council to ask for matching funds to purchase welcome signs for both ends of town. He said the total cost would be $5,000 and asked the city to come up with half. Council unanimously approved to allocate funds to the project.
