About a dozen residents asked questions and offered comments during a public meeting Tuesday night about a proposal by Davidson and other area towns to take over the local cable TV and Internet system.

The session at Davidson Town Hall lasted a little over an hour, and included a presentation by Town Manager Leamon Brice on why Davidson, Mooresville and Troutman are interested in buying the system.

Cornelius also is considering joining the group. Mr. Brice said Tuesday night it now seems likely that Cornelius won’t participate, but instead will transfer its customers to the group, if it buys the system. Huntersville has already formally quit the group.

The towns have the right of first refusal to buy the system, which is up for grabs because of the 2002 bankruptcy of Adelphia Communications. Time Warner Cable, the nation’s No. 2 cable operator, has been operating the local system temporarily since last year, and would like to take over permanently. But it must wait until the towns decide whether to go through the purchase.

If the towns decide to buy, they plan to re-brand the system as MI-Connection. MI, which stands for Mecklenburg-Iredell, would be pronounced like “my.” On Tuesday, Mr. Brice showed a newly designed logo for the proposed new system.

After a New York bankruptcy court ruling last week setting a price for the system, the towns now have until mid-June to vote whether to do the deal. If they vote to go ahead, they would have another 120 days after that to complete the purchase.

Mr. Brice laid out the rationale for the deal, spending much of his time talking about how the towns believe they can improve customer service and add new channels and services quickly by keeping local ownership of the system. His comments echoed what he told reporters Monday during a briefing about the system.

PRO AND CON

One River Run homeowner asked Mr. Brice whether there were any risks to buying the system.

Mr. Brice said one might be the temptation to shift profits from the system into the town’s general fund. “But we can control that,” he said.

He also acknowledged that other competitors might build their own networks in the area to compete with the towns. “There are going to be all kinds of other folks providing services … In our view, if we continue to reinvest to have a state of the art system, we can keep ahead,” Mr. Brice said.

Resident Bill Reeside worried that taxpayers might be forced to bail out the system if it faces financial trouble. He drew a comparison to the National Whitewater Center in Charlotte, which reportedly may turn to Charlotte and Mecklenburg County for help with a financial shortfall.

But Mr. Brice and some members of the town board said the comparison does not work. While the water sports center may be in financial trouble, the cable system is an established business with a good cash flow.

Mr. Reeside added: “It’s not appropriate for government to be involved in cable TV. … Why is Davidson different from Huntersville and Cornelius,” whose town boards apparently oppose public ownership, he wondered.

“We have listened. We just happen to disagree,” Mr. Brice said.

PROGRAMMING QUESTIONS

Another River Run resident wondered if the towns would be at a disadvantage when negotiating for programming, because of their tiny size.

Mr. Brice said the local system would not buy alone, but would be part of a national consortium of small cable providers that purchase programming as a group. The purchasing arrangement would come through BVU – Bristol Virginia Utilities – the outside cable management company that the towns plan to hire to run the system if they decide to buy it.

Several residents said they liked the sound of expanded services and improved customer service, and they seemed to favor the town’s proposal.

Ron Steen of River Run was among them. “Connectivity is a huge quality of life issue for me,” he told Mr. Brice and town board members. “I’ve lived in a lot of other communities that did not have the vision and did not give the access and I think this will be something very good for our community long term,” Mr. Steen said.

TIME WARNER PITCH

At the meeting’s end, a representative of Time Warner Cable asked to speak, and launched into a pitch for what Time Warner would do if it owned the system.

“We already have budgeted more than 50 million dollars to upgrade the system within a year,” said Michael E. Tanck, director of government affairs in Time Warner’s Charlotte division.

He described the company’s “Home of the Future” program, which showcases a variety of new services already in place or coming to customers in the Charlotte area. (He urged residents to check out the company’s “Home of the Future” trailer, which will be in Mooresville at the old Adelphia cable offices May 29 and 30. )

He also talked about the company’s extensive fiber optic network, its sizable channel lineup in Charlotte, its role as a major employer in the Charlotte area and its charitable giving to local causes.

“We would be part of a large interconnection network. … These are things that are already in place. And it would not make this area be a small island unto itself,” he said.

LOCAL ANGLE

After listening to Mr. Tanck, town board member Cary Johnson said she saw the situation as a choice between local control and ownership by a large corporation with highly-paid top executives and internal competition for investment dollars.

“It is far better to me that what profit is earned here — and we anticipate there’ll be considerable profit after a few years — is ploughed back into our system here. Yours (Time Warner’s) will be distributed on a nationwide basis,” she said.

“Cable systems are very valuable. And to me there is tremendous value in towns owning things locally,” Ms. Johnston said.