SCOTT CITY: CABLE PACT EXTENDED ONE YEAR

SCOTT CITY -- Scott City's cable television franchise agreement with Falcon Cablevision has been extended for one year, but members of the City Council said they will seek citizen input as to whether the city should continue the agreement after that time.

At Monday's regular council meeting, members voted to extend the city's agreement with Falcon, which has been the city's cable television operator for 15 years. Falcon last month asked the council for another 15-year agreement.

Council members had originally said they favored a five or 10-year agreement over a 15-year one. But after some discussion, it was decided the city should only bind itself to a new contract for one year.

A stipulation of the new contract is that the city will solicit comments from citizens about the quality of the city's cable service.

Several council members said they had received complaints about the cable service from citizens. According to the contract, the city has 60 days to collect complaints and submit them to the company.

Council members said if Falcon corrected problems in the cable service within the year, they would consider extending the cable contract again. The current contract extends the service until Nov. 22, 1992.

In other business, Mayor Shirley Young said she had met with officials from Southwestern Bell to discuss the city's pending "Enhanced 911" service.

The measure was approved by voters in Scott City and Commerce on Nov. 5.

Young said it's possible the city will begin to collect a surcharge to fund the 911 system in January. The surcharge will be 15 percent of resident's monthly phone bills. It will take two years for enough money to be raised from the surcharge to pay for set-up of the system, she said.

The one-time set-up charge is estimated to be about $30,000, the mayor said. Before the system is implemented, the city will also have to have on hand enough money to fund three months of upkeep on the system. The cost per month of upkeep is projected to be $6,526, Young said.

The surcharge will be collected by Southwestern Bell and returned to the city every three months.

According to law, the city must have the system implemented two years after the surcharge is begun.

Council members also discussed a possible fine assessed to residents who failed to pay the 911 surcharge, but no fine was agreed upon by council members.