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Show Decision on cable TV rate increase postponefj( The Vernal City Council Wednesday delayed a request by Acton Cable Television Company to increase their rate to $9. They also asked to increase additional set charges from the current $.150 to $5. Three years ago Acton Cable Television company purchased the cable television franchise in Ashley Valley. At that time the basic subscription rate was $7.50. At the meeting, it was determined that additional information would be provided pro-vided by Acton, and a decision was postponed until May 15. The cable company is required by FCC regulations to receive city approval for basic rate increases. Doug Johnson, regional manager for Action, said the company was disappointed, disap-pointed, but he thought the council acted unreasonably in postponing a decision. Discussion at the City Council meeting revolved around justification for a rate increase. Johnson said there is an entirely entire-ly new cable television system in Ashley Valley. The company has invested over $500,000 in equipment, including new microdyne satellite receivers, triple crown modules, and completely new cable to every home they serve in the valley. The system has been on line for about one month. Johnson admitted cable television service ser-vice in the Vernal area had been poor prior to the new system being installed, and therefore they had not approached the city council before with a rate increase in-crease request. With the new system, Johnson said, the service has been greatly great-ly improved and the rate increase is now necessary to allow the company to show a profit. A rate comparison of other areas shows $7.50 is below any other locality. Johnson said his company is serving 12 areas in Utah and Vernal is the only area below $9. Councilman Leonard Heeney said he thought the company is a little premature in asking for a raise, since the improvements im-provements to the system have only been in place for one month, and there are still problems. He said cable service has been poor for 10 years, and, "It's pretty damn hard to get glad in 30 days." Councilman Karl Migliori said he wanted to see more justification for the rate increase. He said although the rate might be justified, enough information has not been given for him to go along with approving a rate increase. He asked ask-ed the company to provide a projected return report on their new investment. There are currently 1600 subscribers to Acton's service. Most of now supplied with cak Konveiski, Vernal manager said. They intended to d , system to the remainder of SP'eH-this SP'eH-this fall. 01thevallevb Johnson said they will sunn,,,., council with the requested re eci'v he trusts they will see the nSfr rate increase. He said they hi r $ additional viewing stations to nl' at added cost to the company recently absorbed cost incrl H stations providing program! frl; said they can just nolongSa sorb all cost increases It k boost in rates. ' tlrne 'or a A major bone of contention at tw cil meeting came over the reon crease for additional sets John,, what the company is selling! tion signal. He said there is I they should actually not receive u. 3 amount of money for each set IJ He said cable is not like an add? telephone. When you have the house, when one is busy if' other. With cable, one set can te d tirely separately from another t same service, with the same pictu being provided twice, for only $1 7 Clonal. Even so, he said the is willing to compromise with tW council on this point. 5 |