PUD not selling video equipment
Replacing decoders would cost $250,000
EPHRATA - The Grant County Public Utility District commission scrapped plans to sell pieces of equipment from the utility's video head-end facility Tuesday.
The commission, during the last few weeks, considered unloading decoders from the head-end facility to Apex Communications Supply, Inc. of Hayden, Idaho. The company offered $37,725 for the equipment. The commission also considered selling the facility's antenna. Telecommunications company ATCi of Chandler, Ariz., offered $3,000.
Sale of the head-end equipment could've hamstrung efforts by PUD Commissioner Tom Flint and commissioners-elect Bob Bernd and Terry Brewer to reshape the PUD's policy for the Zipp fiber optic network. Flint said he opposed the sale.
According to a Dec. 20 internal PUD report, written by the telecommunications engineering supervisor, the PUD would spend approximately $250,000 re-acquiring the decoders if a sale was approved now and video was subsequently offered on Zipp. The commission, during their Dec. 18 meeting, decided against selling the antenna, realizing it remained operational for any future video service.
Bernd and Brewer, elected in November, campaigned in support of Zipp build out and a change in course from the current commission's policy on the fiber optic network. In March 2005, the commission voted 3-2 to halt build out of the system, bringing it into the controversial "stand pat" mode. Video service ended in Grant County after the "stand pat" policy was implemented.
The head-end facility, currently not in operation, was used by the PUD to sell wholesale video content to service providers. The providers resold the content - HBO, TNN, ESPN and other TV networks - to retail customers on the PUD's Zipp fiber optic network. In August 2005, following orders to "stand pat," the PUD declared the head-end equipment surplus and authorized its sale.
No reasonable offers were subsequently made to purchase the equipment, said Larry Jones, the PUD's director of information technology. Three separate attempts to sell the entire package of head-end equipment in 2005 and 2006 failed to attract the minimum bid set by the district at $276,000. One bid was received of $10,000, Jones said.
In this most recent effort, the commission considered for the first time selling the equipment in portions.
The commission gave Jones the OK to use some head-end equipment for internal use.
The head-end facility, which cost the PUD approximately $2 million, employs an antenna and multiple satellite receivers to capture video content. The facility's encoders transfer the content into a digital format for transport on Zipp.