Residents living in and around the Joppa area will soon have another choice of television service providers.

During their regular meeting Tuesday, the Cullman County Commission gave Chairman James Graves permission to sign a non-exclusive, three-year franchise contract for digital television service with Otelco, a telephone company based in Arab. Through the contract, the county will receive 3 percent of the revenue generated by the television service in the area.

Phil Thrower, who represented Otelco at the meeting, said the television service would be provided over his company’s existing phone lines.

“We could offer it tomorrow, but we won’t because we have to wait until the final contract is signed,” Thrower said. “As soon as they have the thing signed, we’ll set it up.”

The contract should be signed within the next few days.

Various channel packages will be offered through the service and will be available to Cullman County customers who have Otelco phone service and who are within 5,000 to 6,000 feet of one of the company’s switches.

“It’ll be mainly for those residents surrounding the Joppa area,” Thrower said. “Our service area ends just before the 4-way stop outside Baileyton.

The company plans to build additional equipment to serve other areas in the near future. The company has no plans to serve any incorporated areas of the county.

For more information regarding the new television service, call 586-2682.

Also during the meeting, the commission authorized the Cullman County Revenue Commissioner’s Office to purchase $150,000 worth of mapping computer software from the Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI).

Revenue Commissioner Barry Willingham said the software would be paid for over a three-year period in $50,000 increments.

Once installed, the software will give all other departments in the county access to the revenue commission’s mapping capabilities through the Internet.

“This is going to help the county a lot,” Willingham said. “Departments have to come to us to get maps right now.”

Willingham added that since the revenue commission purchased the software to cover all other departments, the county will save money.

“If every department paid for the software, it would cost between $250,000 and $300,000,” Willingham said.

In other business the commission:

‰ proclaimed the week of Sept. 13-20 as Cullman County Soil and Water Conservation Week.

‰ proclaimed the week of Sept. 21-27 as Resource Conservation and Development Week.

‰ surplused various pieces of broken equipment from the Probate Office.

‰ surplused seven cash registers from the revenue department.

‰ approved the final plat for the Water Bound Subdivision, Phase I.

‰ donated $1,000 to the Kelly Community Center.

‰ donated $1,000 to the Grandview Community Center.

‰ donated $1,000 to the Trimble Community Center.

‰ set the speed limit on County Road 1069 to 40 mph.

‰ set the speed limit on County Road 1570 to 35 mph.



‰ Patrick McCreless can be reached by e-mail at patrickm@cullmantimes.com or by telephone at 734-2131 ext. 270.