HMU to develop plan for telecom’s future

Open meeting reveals more questions, concerns to any potential disposal and sale

    HARLAN – The telecom committee of the Harlan Municipal Utilities (HMU) will be meeting later this month to develop a plan for the future of the telecom utility and present its findings to the full board at HMU’s first meeting in February.
    The move comes after a nearly 80-minute open meeting Tuesday, Jan. 11 where board members came together to ask questions of HMU administration and legal counsel about any potential discontinuation and disposal of the telecom by sale.
    HMU has received one unsolicited purchase offer from Farmers Mutual Cooperative Telephone Company (FMCTC) for $2,050,000.  No action was taken at the meeting on the offer, which saw a January 14 deadline for acceptance come and go.
    What became clear was the need for a more solid future plan, as the meeting raised more concerns and questions about everything from tax liabilities and existing contract requirements to the utility’s actual valuation, concerns for existing employees, technology changes and future fiber optics applications, to name a few.
    “We certainly have a lot of things to consider,” said HMU Board Chairman David Tyrrel.  “I would imagine nobody in this room was expecting all the things that came up today.  I certainly wasn’t.”
    Board member Jim Shelton added, “This board, with the help of HMU, needs to come up with a plan.  That’s what we owe the city.
    “This referendum has empowered the board to come up with a plan for the telecommunications.”
    In November, 2021, Harlan residents gave the HMU Board the authority to consider disposal of the telecommunications utility by sale.  The vote was not to actually sell the telecom, but to give the board the authority to consider it as an option.
    Said Tyrrel, “We’ve been given a unique opportunity to explore something that we’ve never been able to explore before, and that is the possibility that we aren’t the best posture to provide the future for Harlan.
    “If we are, we need to do that, but if we’re not, this is the time to find that out.”

Full article in the Tribune.

 
 

 

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