Small Town News

Cable providers face higher rates

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It's a new year and the city of Cottonwood has quite a bit on its plate this month.

From new animal regulations to street projects, the City Council has already looked at several matters.

Last week, the council looked at a new measure that could potentially increase the amount the city charges cable providers for their license fee to operate.

The city currently charges cable providers a rate of 3 percent and is looking at raising the fee to 5 percent.

It's the normal rate charged by most communities, according to a city report.

"Cable One currently pays the city a license fee equal to 3 percent of its gross revenues from subscribers within the city, and its license to operate in the city is about to expire," City Attorney Steve Horton said. "In the course of researching other cable TV license arrangements around the state, it became clear that the typical cable license fee is 5 percent. In fact, when Cable One's area manager was approached with this information, he indicated that Cottonwood was the only jurisdiction he managed that did not currently collect a license fee of 5 percent."

This week, the City Council is meeting in a work session to discuss new rules about home detention for people convicted of crimes and a measure that would require most dogs in city limits to be spayed or neutered, as well as microchipped.

"Due to the overpopulation of abandoned/unwanted canines, code enforcement was instructed to write a proposed ordinance to require spaying/neutering and microchipping of most canines within the city limits," according to a report from the Cottonwood Police Department.

"The intended benefit of the proposed ordinance is to reduce the number of unwanted and abandoned canines in the city."

The report acknowledges that enforcing such a measure effectively could pose an issue.

The rules would require any dog at least 1 year old to be chipped and fixed or else the dog wouldn't be allowed to reside in the city.

The proposal has some exemptions, including dog used for law enforcement, hunting, ranching or any purebred dog that is properly registered through a group like the American Kennel Club.

The home detention proposal would provide ankle bracelets for some offenders, particularly for those in extreme DUI cases.

The rules would allow for those convicted to serve time at home after serving at least 20 percent of their sentence in jail.

The proposal would also include random breath testing to make sure offenders aren't continuing to consume alcohol.

Mark Lineberger can be reached at 567-3341 or email CVEditor@larsonnewspapers.com



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