During Monday’s Crookston Forum resident spoke about what she felt was a lack of quality coverage of Minnesota news and Sports on Midco Cable service. “I was there about Midcontinent and the coverage that Minnesota fans get,” said Thomas. “Friday night channel 8 was the North Dakota Boy’s Tournament, another channel was North Dakota Girl’s so I called and asked what channel the Minnesota Girl’s Tournament was on, it was on 595, the antenna channel. Saturday is the Championship game that was supposed to start at 4:00 p.m., turn on 595 and they have BeWitched or some other stupid show on. I call Midcontinent and they don’t start carrying the game until 5:30 p.m. when the game is half over.”
She also said she’d like to see news from St. Paul, not just stations that cover Bismarck included in her cable because that’s what affects her. “It’s the same way with the news,” said Thomas. “Everything is about Bismarck. I could care less about what goes on in Bismarck. I want to know what goes on in St. Paul because those laws affect my life and the lives of other people. I suggested when the lease is up they should look at a Minnesota provider because we’re getting lousy coverage from Midco right now.”
According to City Finance Director Angel Weasner, any cable company is welcome to come into Crookston and enter a franchise agreement with the City, that’s up to each individual business. Currently, Midco is the only cable provider who has entered a franchise agreement. “We have a franchise agreement with Midcontinent that has approximately ten years until it is up for renewal,” said Weasner. “Another company is welcome to come in during that time. The City would implement the franchise fee with that provider also, it just depends who wants to come to town.”
The council also passed a resolution calling for a public hearing for issuing bonding to RiverView Health for their building project explained Weasner. “At this point in time we actually called for a public hearing for their bonding,” said Weasner. “There are going to be doing bond issuance with the City being the issuer. It’s called conduit debt, they will be responsible for all of it, we just provide assistance with getting it. There is a public hearing on Monday, March 11 at 7:00 p.m.”
The council also pass the rest of the consent agenda including approving the January 28 minutes, approving City of Crookston bills and disbursements in the amount of $217,070.85, approving gambling application for UMC Teambackers, approving partial board and committee appointments, amending resolution 26866 to update the Buyer/Transferee, approving purchase of a 2019 Chevy Tahoe from Brost Chevrolet.
