The Kenai City Council passed an ordinance that would authorize a budget transfer and increase estimated revenues and appropriations in the congregate housing fund for purchasing and installing equipment to provide Vintage Pointe residents basic television and wireless internet service. The city provides a basic cable television package to its tenants pursuant to the Vintage Pointe Manor Tenant Lease Agreement, however the current television provider announced that they will be discontinuing bulk cable television services in September 2021.
After investigation, and with no other available cable television options, the best solution was to provide basic television channels and internet services to tenants in lieu of basic cable television.
City Manager Paul Ostrander said when the installation happens could be problematic:
“I just wanted to make sure council was aware that the timing of this installation could be compromised to a certain degree. We had a difficult time finding electrical contractor that was able to pull the wiring for this installation. We do have a contractor now that has signed up to do the work, however it could be until the end of October before that work is completed. So there may be a period here where some of the tenants in Vintage Pointe do not have internet services. They will have the TV services that we’re providing through the antenna, but there could be a delay of up to a month until they get the full internet services.”
Kathy Romain, Senior Center Director, told the Kenai City Council:
“The internet is not part of their standard agreement that we have in place. Basic cable television is, but cable television is going away not due to our fault, but it’s just going away. They will be able to have television. It’s a good package, about 18 channels. I’ve looked into what it offers – a lot of reruns, a lot of old channel reruns and there’s even music channels, which a lot of them were concerned about. They listen to music all day long. The ones that have internet will be able to keep their internet until ours takes effect. Unfortunately they won’t have television, but they will have internet and streaming is very much available. We’re working with the library to have classes and they’ll be sending some of their techies over to have streaming classes.”
City Administration estimates that the total cost for installation would be $18,400, of which $9,700 is for materials and $8,700 is for labor with a recurring cost of licensing fees and equipment replacement on a 7-year cycle of $2,000.
