News From Your Manager
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News From Your Manager Randy Grogan December 2014 Vol. 21 No. 4 BALLARD TELEPHONE COOPERATIVE Ballard Telephone’s Board of Trustees and Attorney Would like to wish all of our members a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! L to R (Back row): Mark Medlin Attorney, Wayne Cooper (462 Kevil Exchange), Mike Jones (876 Gage Exchange/President), Jack Giles (335 Wickliffe Exchange) L to R (front row): Elbert Wayne Chandler (224 Bandana Exchange), Joe B. Whipple (665 LaCenter Exchange/Secretary Treasurer), Peggy Meriedeth (334 Barlow Exchange/ Vice President), Mickey Davis (488 Heath Exchange) As I write this article, the full impact of cold weather has finally reached our area. As some of us may not care too much for the change to cooler weather, this time of year does bring the wonderful Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays. It gives us time to gather with friends and family and enjoy good food, each other and reflect on the blessings of this past year and look forward to the New Year. As we near the end of 2014, we have endured challenges of not being able to receive fiber optic cable in a timely fashion. This has pushed the cutover to the fiber of the Wickliffe subscribers to December and hopefully the cutover of some of the Barlow main subscribers by the first of the year. This delay in the receipt of the fiber cable will push completion of these two contracts into 2015 with the finish of the contracts dependent upon this winter’s weather. The 2015 fiber-to-the-home projects in the southern part of the Bandana exchange and the northern portion of the Gage exchange have been engineered and bid books have gone out in November with bid opening and awarding to take place in the first week of December. Purchase orders that will be assumed by the winning bidders went out in October which will allow the fiber optic cable to arrive on the construction sites by the spring start up of construction work. Also, as we near the end of this year and are looking ahead to the coming year, there is the growing dilemma of cable networks and broadcast affiliates continuing to increase the programming fees they charge BTC for the right to deliver their shows, movies and sporting events. Over 80% of cable programming you receive is delivered by nine powerful media conglomerates (Viacom, Discovery, ABC-ESPN- Disney, etc.) that continue to push higher fees (up to 45% this year) and require carriage of low value networks to obtain favorable rates on their high value content. This year has seen the worst increases by the programmers since BTC began offering cable television service almost 10 years ago. The local broadcast stations (WSIL-ABC, KFVS-CBS- Raycom Media, KBSI-FOX-Sinclair Broadcasting and WPSD-NBC) with their retransmission consent agreements are also increasing their rates by unprecedented amounts from 35% to 150%. At this time not all the agreements have been finalized; therefore, we do not know the full impact of the rate increases to BTC on your rates. I can tell you that we do not approve of what the cable networks and broadcast affiliates are doing and BTC, along with hundreds of local independent cable TV providers throughout the country are working together to keep these costs in check. By pulling together with other companies, we can work jointly to achieve more flexibility and better offerings for you at the lowest price possible. We also want to keep you up-to-date on these efforts through the web site – www.tvonmyside.com. I would like to thank you for being a loyal member of your cooperative. We will continue to work hard to make you proud of your cooperative by providing the services you need and want at competitive prices and with great support when you do need help! Please make plans to attend our Christmas open house Friday, December 5th. There will be door gifts, drawings and refreshments. Come by and fellowship with the Board of Trustees, staff, your friends and neighbors. BTC wishes you and your family many blessings during this Christmas season and throughout the coming year!
Transcript of News From Your Manager
News From Your Manager
Randy Grogan
Phone FactsDecember 2014 Vol. 21 No. 4
BALLARD TELEPHONE COOPERATIVE
Ballard Telephone’s Board of Trustees and Attorney
Would like to wish all of our members a Merry Christmas
and Happy New Year!L to R (Back row): Mark Medlin Attorney, Wayne Cooper (462 Kevil Exchange), Mike Jones (876 Gage Exchange/President), Jack Giles (335 Wickliffe Exchange)L to R (front row): Elbert Wayne Chandler (224 Bandana Exchange), Joe B. Whipple (665 LaCenter Exchange/Secretary Treasurer), Peggy Meriedeth (334 Barlow Exchange/Vice President), Mickey Davis (488 Heath Exchange)
As I write this article, the full impact of cold weather has finally reached our area. As some of us may not care too much for the change to cooler weather, this time of year does bring the wonderful Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays. It gives us time to gather with friends and family and enjoy good food, each other and reflect on the blessings of this past year and look forward to the New Year. As we near the end of 2014, we have endured challenges of not being able to receive fiber optic
cable in a timely fashion. This has pushed the cutover to the fiber of the Wickliffe subscribers to December and hopefully the cutover of some of the Barlow main subscribers by the first of the year. This delay in the receipt of the fiber cable will push completion of these two contracts into 2015 with the finish of the contracts dependent upon this winter’s weather. The 2015 fiber-to-the-home projects in the southern part of the Bandana exchange and the northern portion of the Gage exchange have been engineered and bid books have gone out in November with bid opening and awarding to take place in the first week of December. Purchase orders that will be assumed by the winning bidders went out in October which will allow the fiber optic cable to arrive on the construction sites by the spring start up of construction work. Also, as we near the end of this year and are looking ahead to the coming year, there is the growing dilemma of cable networks and broadcast affiliates continuing to increase the programming fees they
charge BTC for the right to deliver their shows, movies and sporting events. Over 80% of cable programming you receive is delivered by nine powerful media conglomerates (Viacom, Discovery, ABC-ESPN-Disney, etc.) that continue to push higher fees (up to 45% this year) and require carriage of low value networks to obtain favorable rates on their high value content. This year has seen the worst increases by the programmers since BTC began offering cable television service almost 10 years ago. The local broadcast stations (WSIL-ABC, KFVS-CBS-Raycom Media, KBSI-FOX-Sinclair Broadcasting and WPSD-NBC) with their retransmission consent agreements are also increasing their rates by unprecedented amounts from 35% to 150%. At this time not all the agreements have been finalized; therefore, we do not know the full impact of the rate increases to BTC on your rates. I can tell you that we do not approve of what the cable networks and broadcast affiliates are doing and BTC, along with hundreds of local independent cable TV providers throughout the country are working together to keep these costs in check. By pulling together with other companies, we can work jointly to achieve more flexibility and better offerings for you at the lowest price possible. We also want to keep you up-to-date on these efforts through the web site – www.tvonmyside.com. I would like to thank you for being a loyal member of your cooperative. We will continue to work hard to make you proud of your cooperative by providing the services you need and want at competitive prices and with great support when you do need help! Please make plans to attend our Christmas open house Friday, December 5th. There will be door gifts, drawings and refreshments. Come by and fellowship with the Board of Trustees, staff, your friends and neighbors.BTC wishes you and your family many blessings during this Christmas season and throughout the coming year!
BALLARD INTERNET NEWSHow to tell if your computer has a virus?
If you answer yes to one or more of the questions below, your computer might be infected with a virus:
1) Is your computer running very slowly? A common symptom of a virus is much slower than normal computer performance. But, other factors can cause slow performance like a hard disk that needs defragmenting, the computer needs more memory or spyware/adware.
2) Are pop-up ads littering computer? The newer browsers have good pop-up protection but it can be configured badly if you are seeing pop-ups on your browser. But, if pop-ups appear when your browser isn’t open, your computer most likely has a virus. It is most certainly infected if the pop-up promises to cure your virus!
3) Are you getting unexpected messages, or are programs starting automatically? Viruses can cause damage to Windows or some of the other programs. The symptoms are messages appearing unexpectedly, programs starting or closing automatically or Windows shutting down by itself.
4) Are emails or social media posts showing up that you did not send? Viruses can take control of your
Facebook and Twitter and send it out as spam. And most commonly viruses send spam via your email. In most all cases, it will include a link or an attachment to the virus somewhere in the post or email.
5) Does your modem or hard disk look to be working extra hard? This itself may not be a symptom of a virus, but along with any of the above, it may indicate a virus. An email virus works by sending many copies of itself as an email. The indication is your activity light on your modem being constantly lit or the sound of your hard disk continually working.
The great news – a virus can be cleaned and it can cost you absolutely nothing!!! The first step is to make sure your virus protection is up-to-date at all times. If you don’t have an antivirus program, download one immediately!
PC magazine rated some of the best ‘free’ antivirus programs. The link for the entire article is listed here - http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2388652,00.asp. A few of the one’s that rated the best are Bitdefender Antivirus Free Edition(2014), AVG Antivirus Free 2014, Panda Free Antivirus 2015, and Avast. You can search for any of these directly and download them for free. To enjoy a robust and safe Internet, please make sure and use an Antivirus program. Please give us a call if you have any questions!
All of us at Ballard Telephone wish you and your family a Happy and Safe Holiday Season! All of us can get caught up in the hustle and bustle of the holidays, so take time to enjoy the company of family and friends AND most importantly let us all remember why we celebrate the Christmas Holiday –The Birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Ballard Telephone will be closed on the following days
Thanksgiving – Thursday, November 27
Christmas Eve – Wednesday, December 24 – Office closes at Noon
Christmas – Thursday, December 25
New Years Day – Thursday, January 1
MERRY CHRISTMAS & HAPPY NEW YEAR BTC
Ballard Telephone Directory ListingPlease contact Leigh Travis, our Directory Coordinator, if you need to change your directory listing in the 2015 Ballard Telephone Directory. Leigh can be contacted at 270-665-5186 or via email at [email protected], unless we are notified, your 2015 directory listing will remain the same listing as the 2014 directory. Our business customers will be contacted by Pinnacle Publishing. Business customers will be requested to sign a contract stating exactly what and how their listing is to be printed. Don’t miss out on this great advertising opportunity!
HIGH SCHOOL SENIORSIT’S SCHOLARSHIP
TIME!!!
I M P O RTA N T DAT E S I N D E C E M B E RDecember 7 - Pearl Harbor Day
December 15 - Bill of Rights DayDecember 21 - Pilgrims Landed, 1620
Why is TV costing more and more? We will focus mainly on ‘retransmission fees’ and our new informational site on www.brtc.net - http://www.tvonmyside.com/Ballard-TV/index.php. We hope you take a moment to visit our TV on My Side website. It does a great job explaining the out of control TV programming rates. We also hope you can take a minute and contact our newly re-elected Congressman Ed Whitfield and U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell and tell them to act on your behalf as a consumer paying overly inflated rates for channels you don’t even watch and put a stop to retransmission fees.
Ballard TV is required to carry your local broadcast TV stations. It’s the law, and we must first obtain each station’s permission before we can carry them on our TV system. However, stations only grant permission when we agree to pay the stations whatever fee they demand, even though anyone can receive TV signals for free by using an antenna. The price to retransmit the local channels will cost more as of January 1, 2015, which in turn will raise the price you see on your statement. We are prohibited by contract to mention any local channel particularly or even charge a separate fee for retransmission. But, one local broadcast station rates will increase by 150% this coming year and by 250% by the end of the third year! Congressman Whitfield and Senator McConnell need to be reminded they have the power to end such abuse of your pocketbook! For more information on this go
BALLARD TV NEWSto our website www.brtc.net and click on the blue TV on My Side icon.
The Good News – TV Everywhere is almost ready. We have all 65 contracts in house and we are developing our TV Everywhere platform. TV Everywhere from Ballard TV will give you the option to watch your favorite networks from any device, from anywhere in the world as long as you have an account with Ballard TV. Our most popular networks will be available. As we begin completing contracts, we will start adding the networks. Watch your mail for instructions and the best news it is FREE!
59th Annual Meeting Winners
We appreciate everyone that attended the 59th Annual Meeting of Ballard Telephone Cooperative.
Congratulations to our two big winners!Mrs. Connie Dalton and Mr. Fred Buckley won the
$200 bill credit!
Ballard Telephone would like to remind all seniors whose parents or guardians are members of BTC about opportunity to apply for the Foundation for Rural Service Scholarship Program (FRS) that we support. FRS awards several scholarships each year in the amount of $2,500. To download and complete the scholarship application, go to www.frs.org. All scholarship applications must be postmarked no later than March 2, 2015 to be accepted. Also, the application must be signed by our General Manager Randy Grogan.
Ballard Telephone will continue to offer a local scholarship for $1,000 to a senior that resides in the Ballard Memorial school district and a $1,000 scholarship to a senior that resides in the McCracken County school district and their parents or guardians are members of BTC. Please see the schools guidance counselor for applications and deadlines.
Good luck to all of our High School Seniors!
11th Annual Christmas Open Houseat
Ballard Telephone CooperativeFriday, December 5th, 9 am to 3 pm
Join the staff of Ballard Telephone Cooperative for a Christmas Open House! Everyone that attends will receive a special Christmas theme door prize and have a chance to win a HD
TV and 2 chances at 6 months free service!
Christmas Open
House SpecialsNew Broadband Internet customers:
Sign a 1 year contract and receive a FREE Roku!
Current Broadband Internet customers:Upgrade your Internet package and receive a FREE Roku!
Whether you are a new customer or an existing customer, we have a Roku for you!
Roku gives you instant access to the most popular streaming channels.
Friday, December 5th – 9 am to 3 pm
Join the staff of Ballard Telephone Cooperative for a Christmas Open House! Everyone that attends will receive a special Christmas themed door prize and have a chance to win a HD TV and 2 chances at 6
months free service!
New Broadband Internet customers – Sign a 1 year contract and receive a Free Roku!
Current Broadband Internet Customers – Upgrade your Internet package and receive a Free Roku!
Roku can provide hours of great entertainment over your Internet connection from BTC.
Roku gives you instant access to the most popular streaming channels.
Amazing free channels.
Whether you are a new customer or an existing customer, we have a Roku for you!
Friday, December 5th – 9 am to 3 pm
Join the staff of Ballard Telephone Cooperative for a Christmas Open House! Everyone that attends will receive a special Christmas themed door prize and have a chance to win a HD TV and 2 chances at 6
months free service!
New Broadband Internet customers – Sign a 1 year contract and receive a Free Roku!
Current Broadband Internet Customers – Upgrade your Internet package and receive a Free Roku!
Roku can provide hours of great entertainment over your Internet connection from BTC.
Roku gives you instant access to the most popular streaming channels.
Amazing free channels!
The employees of Ballard Telephone Cooperative hope that you, our customers, will help us provide some holiday cheer to the entire
community. As you attend the BTC Christmas Open House, please bring canned goods or other non-perishable food items that will be
donated to the local St. Mary’s Food Pantry. Monetary donations will be accepted and donated directly to the St. Mary’s Food Pantry.
Below is a list of recommended items:
We look forward to seeing you at theChristmas Open House
and please consider bringing a donation for the local St. Mary’s Food Pantry!
Peanut Butter, Cornflakes, Cheerios, Ravioli, Spaghetti O’s, Hamburger Helper, Canned Potatoes, Canned Vegetables, Fruit Cups
The Ballard Telephone CooperativeHoliday Community Project
DIRECTIONS:
DIAL A COOK
INGREDIENTS:
Crockpot Pecan Pie
"Calling All Cooks" cookbooks are available at the office for only $10! They will be available at the Open House on Friday, December 5th. They make great Christmas gifts for family and friends. And, all proceeds are being donated to Relay for Life!! The recipe below is from Gina
Garnett -- just one of the great recipes from "Calling All Cooks".
Spray crock pot with non stick cooking spray. Place uncooked pie crust in crock pot and press up the edges about 1/2 inches up each side. In a bowl stir together the remaining ingredients until well mixed. Pour on top of pie crust. Cover and cook on high for 2-3 hours.
1 uncooked pie crust3 eggs1 cup sugar1 cup pecans, broke up1/2 cup butter, melted1 teaspoon vanilla2/3 cup dark Karo syrup
