About the Cable Franchise

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About the Cable Franchise

We have been silent, since we filed the lawsuit.

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I was voted in by the people in 1998 to build and operate a

Cable TV. Franchise in the city limits of Blackwell.

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The City forced us to go to a “Vote Of The People”, even

though they could of just simply approved it.

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They did not believe we would be able to pull it

off.

5

The fact is many of our leaders worked against us

starting rumors.

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The City never tried to help us, in fact quite the

opposite.

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What did we do to create such animosity? The fact is we did nothing

improper! Other then we built it, when they thought we couldn’t!

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Time is our testament. Our problem was we did too good of a job, or we

did not fail like expected.

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We were successful, and our customers liked us, we thanked them and treated them with kindness. We loved them because they chose and supported us.

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We did strange things, like put a camera in our office so they could watch us work on

our head-end equipment.

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We put a camera on top of the grain elevator, and played music. Occasional pointing

it at the City buildings.

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We filmed football games, parades, the Kay Co. Fair.

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We filmed weather events, provided weather radar and

live storm coverage. We even had our own storm spotters.

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I loved doing the weather, but kind of lost interest after the

City started attacking me. they tried to make me stop

doing it, claiming I was endangering the town.

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We worked our tails off. 60 hours a week minimum,

never got a vacation, we were on call 24hrs a day, and we barely saw our children.

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And there was never enough money to pay

ourselves during the first 8 years.

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We struggled financially, just like most of our customers. We understood and tried to work with them when they

were short.

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We lost a lot of money being nice, but it paid off

in the long haul. I certainly hold no grudges, life is to

short. Besides I can’t remember anyways.

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We worked with our customers, never calling

them and harassing them for money.

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We would put up on TV, “We NEED YOUR Payment, X-

Number of people have not yet came in.” It worked better than postage. The City didn’t like

that either. We just tried to save money, keep low prices.

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Our customers knew we needed their support, those payments built this system. I owe you back. I haven’t forgotten. So that is why I fight for what I believe is

right for all of us.

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And Julie knew every single one of you by

name. Plus your address, your kids, parents,

cousins, and how much you owed.

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We did what we said we were going to do!

You can’t fault us on that. This is a tough town to go to church in, I think

we got invited twice.

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We tried very hard but were never excepted. That’s because of the

City’s tactics against us, and they let it be known.

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It took this franchise battle and Julie’s death to truly discover what was really

behind their actions, and I truly believe this with all

my heart.

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We were liked by the plain folk, those ones

that didn’t have something to hide, gain,

or loose.

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The City knows this, they were worried and still are. Our mistake was, that we

were more popular than they were. They will go to any

length to prove and discredit us. Just like this franchise

battle.

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Is this not the most stupid thing you ever seen. They have spent so much money, just to throw a

local person out of town, it should be criminal. They will lie to you and say that’s not true, but I will testify in the name of my father it’s true.

29

We tried to support the City, and in our own way, we did.

Low cable prices saved everyone thousands of dollars.

That saved money, in turn, went back into the local

economy.

30

We also paid the City $20,000 dollars yearly in electric usage

that would of not otherwise been available, if we were not voted

in by you. Today it is more like $44,850 a year. We’re in the same boat as you, just bigger.

31

Yes, it’s true, we paid our franchise fees late. We

always struggled. It was a rough eight years.

32

My City never helped me, my Chamber never helped me, the

BIA, tried to destroy me. Cordell was in the BIA in the 1990’s. He was there when

DW Boyd was the BIA attorney, and Boyd said there was no contamination on the

smelter property.

33

We came out in support for the school when they

needed a new roof, parking lot, and Gym.

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We offered to build the school a fiber optic system

that tied all the schools together,

FOR FREE.

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Instead they went with AT&T and paid them.

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We provided the City, Police Dept. and Fire

Station with Free Internet for 7 years.

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They canceled my service and now pay AT&T

$1,500 a month.

38

Now our franchise says I must build studios at the High

School and City Hall at my expense. City Hall always refused to allow us to film their meetings. Now they want me to build them a

studio.

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Now I am required to give 3% of all revenues collected, in

addition to the Franchise Fee, as a Grant to the school. This will be Billed to you, so they can run a community access

channel.

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I must give this to the school as a grant, paid to them quarterly. If I fail

to do so, they will cancel our Franchise.

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I’m told I must not lease out Ch. 2 to iRock Inc., Taxpayers for

Transparency, or any other third party, this is in direct violation of federal law which says I must. I

must have City approval and follow their rules.

Government Censorship.

42

If I don’t stop leasing our Channel 2, they can fine me,

cancel our Franchise, and take my cable system. There is even a clause that says after they take my cable system, I have to run it for the City for

12 months. FREE

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Who could agree to Franchise terms like those?

Could you?

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Would you spend 10 years of your life building a good business and agree to a contract with the City that said they could take it away from you and make you work for

them for free.

Sounds like communism to me.

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There are so many catch “22’s” in this document. So much

reporting that we will be spending all our time doing meaningless tasks and our

customers will be the ones that will pay and suffer from it.

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The City’s Franchise is now a 39 page document in small

print. The original was only 7 pages long.

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The Pole Rental Agreement is another example of

unrealistic demands upon us.

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They are requiring me to pay $3.50 per attachment.

There are multiple attachments on many of

the poles.

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The agreement says the BMA is the owner of the poles. This

is a lie, the BMA does not own the poles, the citizens do.

The BMA leases them.

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We the citizens, through the City of Blackwell, own the poles. The

Blackwell Municipal Authority, (BMA) manages our utility systems and they

take all the revenues. The BMA simply leases the systems from the City. The

revenues all go to the BMA to guarantee the notes it barrowed from the banks.

This Franchise, the City is forcing me to sign, says that the BMA owns the poles.

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For the BMA to say that they own the poles is like your landlord finding out you took out a mortgage

on your rental home.

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Federal law allows Cities to collect up to 5% of gross

revenues for the use of the public right of ways.

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The City wanted 5% of all our revenues which will be billed to you and pole rental of $3.50 per

attachment. To disguise this illegal scheme, they are trying to get me to go along with breaking

State and Federal laws. By signing a contract that says the

BMA owns the poles.

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My forced signing will then allow them to charge other

users in the future like AT&T pole rental. Another legal

battle that will cost you dearly.

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I know I have spent a ton fighting this Franchise Agreement, I can only

imagine how much a big corporation like AT&T

would be willing to spend.

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The City is also pulling this on Freeport.

The BMA is suing Freeport, too.

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The City wants Freeport to pay the BMA so that

City/citizens cannot have control of the money.

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The City leases all the revenue producing utilities to the BMA

for $1.00, yet the City bills you, collects it, then gives all

the money to the BMA.

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Then the BMA divides this money up, and gives the City

what it originally put in its budget.

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If, Sally did not put enough on the budget, then they are

short.

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Then WA-La, City is $500,000 short.

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The City brings in $14 million. Now they are going to increase electric

costs 10%, water and sewer 25%, and trash 45%.

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The accountant told them they were doing very good. In fact, the City banked $1.5 million more in one fund and $1.3

million in another fund, but the somehow City budget was going

to be $200,000 underfunded.

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And the accountant did not recommend a rate increase.

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So at the next council meeting they brought in an opposite opinion, and said we were

going to be $500,000 short and you need to raise rates.

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OK, I went to Blackwell High, but I figure we got about $3

million more than we need in two other areas, and $500,000

short in another area. That means we got $2.5 million. So we simple amend the budget.

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Oh, that’s right Sally has never filed an amended budget

before, so they don’t know how to do it.

But they do know how to raise rates.

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They agreed to wait until after the elections to raise the rates. Or see if anyone runs against

them next week.

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Is there truly not anyone in this town who can run. Surely

there is someone who cares, who is willing to work hard, study the issues, and make

common sense decisions. Its just two days a month.

Meetings only last 15 minutes, and you get to spend 14

million dollars.

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You can sign up to run on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday of this coming week. That the 11th 12th

and 13th of January.

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Anyone who lives on the East side of Main can sign up.

That’s Nita Carroll’s district.

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And anyone who lives between Main and 13th and on the North side of Ferguson and South side

of McKinley can run against Max Wirtz.

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Back to our cable franchise.

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We were required to attend a settlement conference. We

went and talked about it, that was our mistake, they then

claimed we had an agreement, I never agreed to any of it other

than a 10 year term.

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But somehow even after the judge ruled we had cause

on, Defamation, 5th and 14th Amendment Due Process Violations, and Violations

of the Cable Act…

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…he ruled we had a verbal agreement. So we never got

our day in court.

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We are now forced to appeal this decision. And we did

appeal it Monday.

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If we loose, and can’t get to court...

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…this could be the last of these messages.

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We will have to behave! You will be on your own!

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Just kidding I’m not going to stop until we get the job done, It’s time for you to help, now

is the time!!!

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Here are the goals!

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1. Bid out our Electricity to get the lowest price.

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2. Use City employees to run our water and sewer system once

again.

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3. Establish a group of monitors to watch the clean-up and fine them if they don’t follow well established

standards..

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4. Test all our City employees who have been forced to expose themselves to hazardous waste

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5. Determine possible liability costs for the City employees and any uninformed contractors that were possible exposed.

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6. Do not even consider settling with Freeport until we know

everything!

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7. Begin testing all children not just for lead but cadmium, antimony and silver.

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8. Fight to get Blackwell back on the National

Priority Listing.

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9. Get the CDC into town and help to resolve longstanding

issues.

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10. Push to bring charges against the guilty and let the

rest GO to testify for us.

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11. Re-Empanel a new environmental steering

committee.

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12. Dissolve the BMA or limit its use.

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Mark Cordell 363-4433Max Wirtz 363-3002Brad Becthel 363-5828Nita Carroll 363-4506Hudsonpillar 363-3133

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We also need the people to understand, that your City filed

suit against Freeport only for damages to its property. They did not and are not suing for

your personal injuries.

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All past and present City employees are not covered. They are not doing anything

for you!

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Just recently a major water line broke on the Site, and

the City of Blackwell sent its employees to dig in the contamination without

protection.

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In 1992 the EPA tested the very same spot wearing

disposable coveralls, booties, gloves, and a full-face air-purifying respirator to collect just a few small

dirt samples.

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That area contains elevated Thorium. Thorium is used in

producing nuclear fusion, hence Thorium Rods.

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This same area, where you dump your trash off and played baseball (13th Street and West Blackwell) contains high levels of Cadmium,

Lead, Mercury, Antimony, and Arsenic. Arsenic is a known

cancer causer.

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Anyone who dug on the site, played ball at the Ball Field

located on the corner of Blackwell and 13th, or worked on the Industrial Park are likely to

have been exposed to heavy metals. Safeguard your medical

records you may need them.

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Here is a partial list on what to look for.

Kidney problemspersistent fatiguepoor coordinationpremature birth

learning disabilitiesseizures or coma

bladder cancerlung cancer

memory problemsmiscarriagescolon cancer

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Abnormal heart rhythmaggressive behavior

anemiaedema

skin cancermuscle weakness

decreased bone densityinability to concentrate

muscle weaknessCOPD

leukemia progressive supra nuclear palsy

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Brittle nails with Mee’s linesencephalopathyhyperkeratosis

peripheral neuropathypolyneuropathy

proteinuriaheadacheshair loss

Lou Gehrig disease type II diabetes

birth defectsneurological

Lupus

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Our Smelter was not just your run of the mill

smelter…

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In 1939, it was reported that the Blackwell Zinc Smelter was the third largest in the

World.

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Our Zinc Smelter was the largest in the United States.

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In 1951, the Blackwell Zinc Co. finished construction on the largest sintering plant in the

US. The Sintering Plant consisted of 3 separate building with a combined 81,000 square

feet of floor space.

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The Sintering Plant had over 4,800 feet of belt conveyers and the average sinter output during the first year was 18.2

tons per hour. The plant consumed up to 300,000 cubic feet of natural gas PER DAY.

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Blackwell supplied 13% of the cadmium for the entire US.

It sold 26.25 million pounds from this smelter.

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This Zinc smelter produced 3,359,920 tons….THATS TONS of ZINC

3.34 million tons

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The water discharge reports from March 1973 indicated the overflow from the smelter pond that went into the legion

park creek and eventually into the Chikaskia where we got our water from. 68,115,333 gallons of water discharge into our creek that the children play in

and the City still refuses to put up warning signs.

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In 1971 OU conducted a air quality program and they were

measuring sulfur admissions. The guys tried to conduct the

measurements from the site but they were so high they could not use them. They had to go a mile away before the reading lowered enough to determine a pattern of

emissions.

119

There has been documented releases of airborne waste of

85 Million pounds.

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The debris from broken condensers, retorts, and slag is enough to bury Blackwell in

one foot of this highly contaminated waste.

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If you dare to challenge the fact that Blackwell isn’t

highly contaminated, you must have something to loose

personally.

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If you (The City) are afraid to admit the seriousness of this

situation, we are not. You can stay with your podium and

keep your job. The rest of us have our quality of life to

save.

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Also, don’t forget to sign up to run against Max Wirtz and Nita Carrol beginning Monday morning on the

11th, 12th, and the 13th of next week. Come by 1004 W. Doolin and get your

donation, after you signed up for candidacy.

- Greg Deffner