Looking out over Lake Norman this morning, it is clear that the water level is slowly rising but we are still in a drought. Many of the hazards we have seen in LKN over the past few months are slipping back under the merky waters and giving us a false sense of relief that really isn't so.
Please keep up the water conservation practices you have started. Even when the rains do come (and they will eventually come), we still need to think about how the region around LKN is growing and that more and more people will depend on our living jewel, Lake Norman, in the years to come.
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
MI-Connection: Not My Connection
We had our new DirectTV satilite installed over the weekend. Man what a difference. Our house is new and we have a fairly nice structured wiring set up. I liked the idea of cable vs. satilite because it was less clutter and simple to connect. But our wonderful local governments have sold our souls (and future tax revenue) to the new devil called MI-Connection.
Someone got the bright idea that we wanted our local governments to own and manage the local cable company. I don't know who that genius was but I sincerely hope we never meet. For those of you too new to LKN to remember, many years ago, Cornelius, Huntersville, and serveral other munis that were part of "ElectriCities" got the bright (pun intended) idea to buy into the building of power plants. They thought that by owning these assets it would be cheaper power to buy and sell in the long run. NOT.
Well, in very short order, the cost to build those plants exploded, the towns that were going to use all that power didn't grow as they had expected, and power sales didn't increase as expected. But guess what, the banks and bond holders still wanted to be paid for loaning all the money to the munis. So, to meet their bond obligations, they had to raise electric rates to cover their expenses. To this day, power rates for Huntersville and Cornelius are higher than those at neighboring Duke Power or EnergyUnited.
Fast forward to 2008 and the same munis have bought a bankrupt cable system that needs huge investments just to get into the digital age, they are still restricted to their town boarders, AND they have satilite as well as the internet to compete with. And on top of that, MI-Connection can't even compete with Time-Warner on price because the bankruptcey sale froze cable rates to match or exceed Time-Warner!
This isn't going to end well for me. Yes, I am now a very satisfied DirecTV subscriber but I am also a resident of the Town of Cornelius. That means that there is a very good chance that at some point in the very near future, my property taxes will be paying down some really poor programming choices.
Someone got the bright idea that we wanted our local governments to own and manage the local cable company. I don't know who that genius was but I sincerely hope we never meet. For those of you too new to LKN to remember, many years ago, Cornelius, Huntersville, and serveral other munis that were part of "ElectriCities" got the bright (pun intended) idea to buy into the building of power plants. They thought that by owning these assets it would be cheaper power to buy and sell in the long run. NOT.
Well, in very short order, the cost to build those plants exploded, the towns that were going to use all that power didn't grow as they had expected, and power sales didn't increase as expected. But guess what, the banks and bond holders still wanted to be paid for loaning all the money to the munis. So, to meet their bond obligations, they had to raise electric rates to cover their expenses. To this day, power rates for Huntersville and Cornelius are higher than those at neighboring Duke Power or EnergyUnited.
Fast forward to 2008 and the same munis have bought a bankrupt cable system that needs huge investments just to get into the digital age, they are still restricted to their town boarders, AND they have satilite as well as the internet to compete with. And on top of that, MI-Connection can't even compete with Time-Warner on price because the bankruptcey sale froze cable rates to match or exceed Time-Warner!
This isn't going to end well for me. Yes, I am now a very satisfied DirecTV subscriber but I am also a resident of the Town of Cornelius. That means that there is a very good chance that at some point in the very near future, my property taxes will be paying down some really poor programming choices.
Welcome to Lake Norman Locals!
Hi and welcome to my blog! My name is Tommy but my friends call me Tc. I live with my family on the south end of Lake Norman. We've been in this area for over 10 years but I grew up just across the river in Gaston County and have spent my fair share of time in the Lake Norman area.
For some time now, I've thinking about what kind of blog I wanted to write. I'm in sales for a real job (so far as I can tell, blogs don't pay anything) and thought about writing in that field but let's face it, there are plenty of sales gurus out there spouting off advice and I didn't think the world needed one more. I also considered writing a ranting blog, you know, one of those that goes off on tangents about all manner of irratating things. Again, who really needs more of that. Then I thought about all of the folks in the area that have been here a while or may be new to the Lake. Why not write about our area? Why not talk about the good things, the not so good things, and just life in general in the Lake Norman area? Well, there you go.
I don't know where this will take me but it will be fun just seeing how we connect. I hope you enjoy my postings and I look forward to your feedback. So, now that we're friends, you can call me Tc too!
For some time now, I've thinking about what kind of blog I wanted to write. I'm in sales for a real job (so far as I can tell, blogs don't pay anything) and thought about writing in that field but let's face it, there are plenty of sales gurus out there spouting off advice and I didn't think the world needed one more. I also considered writing a ranting blog, you know, one of those that goes off on tangents about all manner of irratating things. Again, who really needs more of that. Then I thought about all of the folks in the area that have been here a while or may be new to the Lake. Why not write about our area? Why not talk about the good things, the not so good things, and just life in general in the Lake Norman area? Well, there you go.
I don't know where this will take me but it will be fun just seeing how we connect. I hope you enjoy my postings and I look forward to your feedback. So, now that we're friends, you can call me Tc too!
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