February 6, 2006

AFN adds customers in second half of 2005

By Vickie Aldous
Ashland Daily Tidings

The Ashland City Council has received some good news about the debt-ridden Ashland Fiber Network. According to a new AFN financial report the council will review during a 7 p.m. meeting on Tuesday, the city has actually added Internet customers and lost relatively few cable television customers from July through December 2005.

The council meets at the Ashland Civic Center Council Chambers, 1175 E. Main St.

In the wake of media coverage of AFN’s financial problems and the AFN Options Committee’s November recommendation that the city work on selling or spinning off the enterprise, some predicted customer counts would plummet.

But AFN actually added 210 Internet customers from July through December 2005, boosting the total number to nearly 4,000, the report states. AFN lost 13 cable television customers from July through December 2005, ending at 3,150 customers.

AFN had its highest number of cable television customers in March 2005 with 3,214, according to the report.

The number of cable television customers then dipped in the summer — a predictable seasonal change — and then rose again in the fall before declining again in November and December 2005, for a loss of 64 customers from the highest level ever recorded.

In late December, the city council directed staff to develop plans to sell or spin off AFN as a separate nonprofit. At least two businesses and the nonprofit Jefferson Public Radio Foundation have expressed interest in AFN.

Excluding payments on AFN’s $15.5 million debt, AFN’s revenues were greater than its operational expenses in July, August, October, November and December 2005, according to the financial report covering July through December.

Cable television rate increases are going into effect this month to lift AFN’s television rates closer to market levels. It remains to be seen whether those increases will impact cable television customer numbers.

In other business Tuesday night, the council will consider whether to award $245,241 to the Ashland Chamber of Commerce and $112,200 to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival using revenue from the city’s hotel/motel tax.

The council passed a resolution in 2004 that states the city will award the two organizations one-third of hotel/motel tax to promote tourism and economic development.

Friction developed after Councilors Cate Hartzell, Jack Hardesty and David Chapman recently asked the chamber of commerce to offer a detailed account of how it spends the money.

The council also is scheduled to discuss whether to adopt more aggressive collection efforts to deal with businesses that fail to pay the hotel/motel tax and meals tax. The city could turn accounts over to collection agencies or revoke business licenses.

Other agenda items include finalizing the adoption of new measures that allow developers to build more densely if homes meet conservation standards, hearing the quarterly financial report covering the city government as a whole, considering approval of a draft Trail Master Plan and discussing future options for supporting renewable energy, such as developing a community solar power project.

Hartzell also is proposing that the city schedule a forum on a proposed community policing ordinance that has been developed by a citizens’ group. Additionally, she is asking the council to reconsider its award of a $372,320 contract to LTM, Inc. that includes downtown pedestrian crossing improvements and Nevada Street Local Improvement District work. She wants to discuss the town’s lobbying efforts with the federal government as well.

Staff writer Vickie Aldous can be reached at 479-8199 or vlaldous@yahoo.com.