Megan Miller
KEYSER, W.Va. — The Mineral County Commission spent the bulk of its Tuesday morning meeting in question-and-answer sessions on two issues with longterm implications for the county.
The commission met first with two regional representatives of Comcast to speak about the renewal of the company’s franchise agreement with the county. The previous agreement expired in February 2009, but the company has continued to operate under its terms to this point.
Under the terms of the agreement, the county charges Comcast a 5 percent franchising fee for its operations. If renewed, the agreement will be in effect for 15 years, until 2025.
County Coordinator Mike Bland pointed out that there is still a fundamental problem with cable service in the county — lots of people can’t get it.
But Comcast Technical Operations Manager Stephen Campbell explained that under the terms of the existing agreement, Comcast will only expand service areas where there are 30 serviceable homes per mile in proximity to an existing plant. Those homes don’t all have to buy the service, he said; they just have to be there.
Homes set back more than about 125 feet from the main roadway probably can’t be included in that count, he added.
Customers whose homes don’t fall within those guidelines might still be able to get service, but they’ll have to pay for the installation of cable lines, and that can run into the thousands of dollars, Campbell said.
The commission did not make its final decision on whether or not to renew the franchise agreement. That topic will probably be addressed in its next meeting.
The commission also met with Dave Barton, an insurance broker and consultant who has been working with county governments and municipalities throughout West Virginia to come up with health care coverage alternatives to the state’s Public Employees Insurance Agency.
The state has faced serious financial problems related to the PEIA and health care coverage for retirees. Up until this point, the state has subsidized a large portion of each employee’s retiree health care until the individual reached age 65 and became eligible for Medicare. The growing burden of paying those retiree health care costs has put the state in debt more than $8 billion, which stands to fall on local governments in the form of increased payments of those costs per employee.
Barton spoke with the commissioners about some possible outcomes if they continued with health care, for both current employees and retirees, under PEIA or chose to go with a private insurance provider. He has been working separately with the Keyser city government on the same issue. The Keyser City Council has already directed employees to fill out preliminary questionnaires so the city can get price quotes from private insurance providers. It’s also approved spending $2,600 on an actuarial study to determine the city’s insurance needs.
The commissioners did not yet take any action on Barton’s recommendations, but did direct county employees to fill out the preliminary questionnaires.
Contact Megan Miller at
