Todd Paris, Salisbury Attorney and Candidate for Salisbury City Council
**Update October 31st: Now down for a 2nd day.”
♦ It is 11:00 p.m. on October 30, 2017. This morning when I went downstairs Fibrant was down. I told Ms. Shumate to call them and see what was up. When I returned from lunch she informed me that she called and they said it was “weather related” and that they mentioned a tornado in Greensboro or something. The odd thing is we received incoming phone calls, but could not make outgoing phone calls. We got television upstairs. Attorney David Shelby popped up on my FB page (which I had to view by cell phone) to say his office right across the back alley had no problems with their Fibrant. Its now been over 12 hours.
I remember the last city manager establishing a redundant line for Fibrant and his team reduced outages when he was here. Have we stopped subscribing to the second redundant main line? Why would that affect me and not the Shelby firm fifty feet away? Surely these guys would not BS me on why I am down, would they?
While I have remained critical of the 3 million dollar plus deficit that Fibrant removes from our general fund each year, I was supportive of the level of service and the folks that work there. We all found out at the last forum form City Council Member David Post that due to Fibrant, Salisbury now has a 70 cent tax rate and that 12 cents of that is due to Fibrant. He says that tax rate is the highest of any municipality around here.
The bottom line is for a small business like mine, if it does not work–it has to go. At 9:00 a.m. Ms. Shumate will be calling Spectrum. I have to make payroll this week and do legal research. In case you are wondering this article was typed on a halting cell phone hot spot. I hope there are not any restaurants or bars down on Fibrant down now. Without the ability to process credit cards, these businesses are dead in the water.
My concern is after 10 years what sort of equipment is wearing out and needs replacing? I heard some of it was recycled equipment to start with. If we lose the pending lawsuit against the company that erected Fibrant in violation of the National Electric Safety Code, how many millions or tens of millions will it cost the city to fix the lines? I asked the Fibrant director at the candidate question and answer session earlier this year and they would not tell the challengers. They objected as it was a matter under litigation. The worse may be yet to come. Could we be facing a 75 or 80 cent tax rate in the near future? What’s at the bottom of the Fibrant “rabbit hole?”
Some folks just keep on supporting a clueless mayor and a hobbyist council member no matter what. I will keep folks posted as to the cost and hardship if we have to internet transmission tomorrow. By hot spot, of course.
