On Tuesday, Andalusia Mayor Earl Johnson put local cable franchisee Mediacom on notice: If their service doesn’t get better, the City of Andalusia will compete against them by investing in infrastructure and providing its own broadband services.
“(Mediacom) operate(s) here because we let them,” Johnson said, referring to the franchise agreement the company has with the city. “As a city government we can’t tell them or make them do anything. But we can locate someone who is an expert on broadband and Internet who can tell us what we can do.”
Specifically, the mayor said, he has been gathering information about how the City of Opelika addressed the exact same issue.
Opelika Power Services began offering its network to local businesses summer 2014, according to archives of the Opelika-Auburn News.
In Opelika, all residents and businesses now have access to high-speed Internet, cable TV and telecommunication services.
Opelika is the only municipality in the state of Alabama that owns and operates a 100 percent fiber network. The community-owned power company, which began in 1911, offers television, telephone and Internet throughout Opelika. The network is the only GIG network in Alabama offering services to both residential and commercial customers.
“Gig City” refers to one-gigabit-per-second fiber internet service provided through Opelika Power Services’, OPS, city-owned fiber-optic cable. This cable allows Internet uploading and downloading speeds to be recognizably faster than the national connection average of 6.7 megabit-per-second.
According to Opelika Mayor Gary Fuller, who spearheaded the initiative, the city had three goals: to upgrade its electrical grid, provide more broadband choices for residents and businesses and further strengthen its economic development platform to attract new businesses and employment opportunities.
And that’s precisely why Johnson said Andalusia should consider making a similar move.
“This city will not grow or attract businesses and industries that we want here unless they can be assured the broadband and television services that are necessary to run a business,” he said. “A lot of businesses, if they don’t have broadband, it shuts their business down. It’s a serious thing.”
The city’s utilities department could easily become a broadband provider, he said.
The Timmerman Building could be home to a new business by the summer of 2018.
Milky Moo’s, a homemade ice cream business, is looking to lease the bottom floor of the Timmerman building. Members of the Andalusia City Council had the first reading of an ordinance setting up a lease agreement Tuesday night. The city acquired the building, also known as the First National Bank building, about Jan. 1, 2017.
Milky Moo’s operates locations in Enterprise, Ozark and Headland.
While their specialty is ice cream, the business also offers cupcakes, cakes, ice cream cakes, candies, soups, sandwiches, salads, wraps and hotdogs. Johnson said the owner of Milky Moo’s was interested in locating in Andalusia before the city acquired the property, and wanted to move here last year. However, a health issue delayed her plans.
“This is an exciting announcement,” Mayor Earl Johnson said. “We’re going to be putting a commercial business in a building that’s been sitting mostly empty for at least 30 years.”
“I’m excited about the company and what it will bring to the downtown area. It will be good business and good for our downtown development.”
Johnson said the restaurant complements what is already available downtown. The Andalusia location should open roughly in midsummer, by July 1st.
“This is a good start on the redevelopment of the downtown area. I think this business will fit in very well with our other businesses,” Johnson said.
The ordinance will likely be approved at the council’s next meeting, set for Tues., Feb. 20.
Mayor Earl Johnson would like to put Mediacom on notice.
The cable and Internet company has a franchise agreement to operate in the city, but that doesn’t mean the city can’t compete with them. And if conditions don’t improve, that’s exactly what he intends for the city to do.
“For the entire time that I have been mayor, I have not received as many complaints about anything as I have received about the cable and broadband service from Mediacom,” Johnson said Tuesday during the city council’s meeting. “Whatever it is that they’re doing here, they need to make some changes.”
Mediacom acquired Andalusia TV Cable in late 2016, and has been working on the system for more than a year. Doug Frank, Mediacom group vice president for the coastal region, told The Star-News in December the company was in the process of rebuilding 100 miles of cable, and expected to be able to deploy 1-Gig service within six months.
Initially, the company maintained customers’ original Andy Cable packages, but in January, began transitioning to Mediacom packages. To deploy the new service, Mediacom is sending technicians to install new cable boxes, and in some cases, new modems, to its customers.
But customer complaints have been so loud, the mayor said, and ample broadband is so key to the ability to conduct business, the city might need to become an Internet provider for the good of local businesses.
“(Mediacom) operate(s) here because we let them,” Johnson said, referring to the franchise agreement the company has with the city. “As a city government we can’t tell them or make them do anything. But we can locate someone who is an expert on broadband and Internet who can tell us what we can do.”
Competition has always improved service, he said.
“Cities like Opelika have dealt with this problem before,” he said. “We could meet with the mayor and their technical support team and compare notes.
“This city will not grow or attract businesses and industries that we want here unless they can be assured the broadband and television services that are necessary to run a business,” he said. “A lot of businesses, if they don’t have broadband, it shuts their business down. It’s a serious thing.”
Johnson said he has met with Mediacom officials to address his concerns, but the service has not improved.
“I don’t know of anything else to do but to start asking questions and find out,” he said. “We need enough broadband to provide our people with what their needs are and we don’t have it right now. People are paying for services that they are not getting them.
“I want to see if there is something we can do,” he said. “It’s our duty to look into it.”
Johnson said he believes the city’s utilities department could easily become a broadband provider.
The City of Andalusia’s Relay For Life team is selling barbecue sack lunches this Friday, and they have a local “celebrity chef” preparing the food.
Billy Joe Stallworth is cooking the meat for the sandwiches.
“Normally we have around 280 or so sack lunches sold,” Sonja Godwin, a member of the city’s Relay for Life team said.
“Right now we’ve sold well over 200 lunches. There’s still a bit of last minute orders coming in, we’ve had several today.”
The team is expecting around 300 sack lunches sold.
The sack lunches will include a barbecue sandwich, sauce on the side, chips, a drink and cookies prepared by Winn Dixie.
The sack lunches are $6.
The pick-up date for the sack lunches is on Fri., Feb. 9, from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m at the Adult Activity Center.
If 10 or more are purchased Godwin said they would be able to deliver.
For more information contact the AAC at 334-222-6891.
The Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs (ADECA) has awarded the Andalusia Police Department a $24,000 grant for a new communications system.
The department applied for the funding last fall, and plans to purchase a Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) system for the police communications center.
Funding was announced by Gov. Kay Ivey on Friday.
This new system will enable communications officers the ability to dispatch the closest officer to a call by choosing the most available officer based on the displayed availability monitored by the CAD system, Chief Paul Hudson said. It also will shorten the response times for calls for service, and provide communications officers with important information to provide to the officers including, call history as related to location, similar incidents or active warrants for service on all calls for service dispatched by the Andalusia Police Department.
“The opportunity to provide better services to our citizens by improving response time, improving officer safety by having the ability to provide officers with call history information will be an asset to our city,” Hudson said. “I’m thankful for the award made by Gov. Ivey and look forward to continuing and improving the work that our department does to protect the lives and property of citizens and visitors through improved technology and training.”
The cities of Ozark and Union Springs, and Geneva County received similar grants.
“Our police officers and sheriff’s deputies often work in highly dangerous situations and deserve the best equipment possible while serving and protecting residents,” Ivey said. “I am happy to assist in the efforts of these law enforcement agencies as they continue to serve their communities.”
The Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs is administering the grants from funds made available by the U.S. Department of Justice. ADECA manages a wide range of programs that support law enforcement, economic development, infrastructure upgrades, recreation, energy conservation, water resources management and career development.
Andalusia Star News