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Show December 30, 2000, THE DAILY HERALD, Saturday, By AMY K. STEWART The Daily Herald PROVO The city has hired a company to run its newly purchased cable system, Provo Cable. King Comm, a business located in Mapleton and Salt Lake City, will operate Provo Cable while city officials decide what to do about its telecom proposal decision. The City Council will eventually vote in 2001 on a $34 million telecom proposal that would enable Provo to offer cable, Internet and phone services to residents who want it. The council already voted, on Dec. 19, to approve a financial plan for the proposed telecom service. Coincidentally, the city purchased Provo Cable in jOctober and has since created city code and policy to operate it. " Provo Cable was founded in 1988 by Bill Nicol. He signed a franchise agreement with the city in 1992, then died in 1996. Shortly after Nicol's death, the company was sold to Northstar tele-Visi- on Multimedia , Contracting the work out is a good idea since the city doesn't know whether it is going to go into the telecom business at this time, so it wouldn't make sense to hire a bunch of cable employees. "It works better to contract that out," Venturella said. "We just need someone with the skills to do cable and cable instillation repair." Councilmen Stan Lock- - with the city. Provo bought the cable company partially to solve the financial problem. Now Provo city owns Provo Cable, and King Comm is under a six month contract to run it. After six months, continuation of the contract will be discussed. The idea is to keep the y city out of the busiof the cable operations ness, said city telecom manager Paul Venturella. day-to-da- then so be it," he said. hart and Paul Warner, who Warner agreed. "It's just a short-terthing as I understand it," he said. "We'll just see what happens." Steve King, who manages and owns King Comm, said he is looking forward to fulfilling cable duties for haven't been too keen on said anything they're OK with hiring King Comm. "In light of the fact the majority of the City Council voted to go ahead and purchase it (Provo Cable), I feel we need to now move forward in a way to make it function as efficiently as possible," Lockhart said. "And if that means hiring an outside party to run it, cable-relate- (www.HaATheHi-rald.com)- -- m d, the city. "I feel confident we'll do a good job and be successful," King said. He has been in the cable . Provo, Utah Page A3 business for about 30 years and was employed with TCI Cable in Provo for 16 years as a technical manager before leaving to create his own company in 1997. King Comm has 45 employees and does contract work for a number of local broadband providers. Amy K. Stewart can be reached at or 344-255- 2 astewartheraldextra.com c J Communica- tions. Nicol's family completed the sale, but North-sta- r failed to expand the company's service capabilities as promised. In the summer of 1997, Northstar filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy which turned to Chapter 7 a year later. In September 1998, the Nicols family took control of the company again and tried to expand the coverage. Provo Cable ended up owing the city a penalty of up to $200,000 for not meeting franchise obligations m mssm ID I "J I 1 B)ili mm m y r "f S rl 1 " "AtSOLUTELt THE tEST CASH HICES, WE WILL NOT EE VSDElSOLDr With Every Windshield You GeU FREE Mobile Service. FREE State Inspection. FREE Rock Chip Repair. Insurance Approved. 100 Guaranteed. Sv I I ! I j Dp to SWBSfWP I ATTT? Your Insuranct uwucuble.1 will Nit KapttJ125.t 4jm I IwumetDatoclibk. OH for fcttik Salt Lake Provo Ogden ' . N. State PtwnW 500 So. 300 far 9S0 Washington W. 10.000 aw ( U. if I II J . V r i i I j i r r Mi J 1 I J i O" : ) j-- ' V Yi p) J o (i j 3924433 '533-CT- 1485 ki p unosua 9 w I fJfpMj aj ! MS ! t itiMDHHilOifiiiHii ( . ' if oi!v, M !i QIRT r v.t: VLnlK, IP!iVM?(lI!l! II P XV f ... jm .4, 4 J-'- L 1.1 j 'jt,...' ' ; ., at - ' mJJkJ Jkti tUta j . , mt 2 L t id TO SUBSCRIBE CALL i'iwv,f' GREAT CUSTOMER SERVICE : -- t; 11 i 4: jirv.f.rWrr V w-- - i |