Dryden residents learned financial restraints were the reason behind council’s decision to potentially sell its municipally run phone services.
Dryden officials held a public meeting Thursday to let residents know about the pending sale of Municipal Telephone Service to Bell Aliant and Dryden Mobility to TBayTel. Dryden city council began working on an exit plan from the service in 2011, and recently announced their plans to sell.
City manager Joe Van Koeverden made a presentation displaying how the municipality has found itself in such financial restraint.
The presentation outlined details from the two offers, including dates to when the deals would be finalized. TBayTel will be assuming all mobility customers at a price that has yet to be announced, which Van Koeverden addressed as "more than fair." Bell Aliant will takeover and continue to operate DMTS through a seamless transition, at a purchase price of $4.5 million, with no change in rates for landline or Internet at this time.
Van Koeverden says the city decided to "retain and grow" its mobility by investing $15 million into an eventually outdated technology.
Van Koeverden says the service's budget was reported separately from normal city operations and that the warning signs were simply not understood and added the decision to move forward with the investment overlooked the possibility that it could backfire.
The final decision on the offers will be made at an open council meeting on Oct. 3.
(Thunder Bay Television)
