Judge Limbaugh Rules For City, Against Petition
It is with great sadness that I write to the people of Poplar Bluff informing you that the Federal Courts have handed down a decision opposing our petition.
I believe that Open Access is the single most powerful impetus to true growth for our city, but at every turn this belief has been thwarted, ridiculed and fought by our city officials.
I congratulate Doug Bagby and the City Council. As you enjoy your victory and pat each other on the back for a job well done, I hope that you recognize you silenced your citizens, you deafened yourselves to the point of harm, and spent city funds to defeat the desires of the citizens who put you in office.
My family has been praying for Doug and each Council member by name, almost every day, out of obedience to the instructions of our Lord Jesus. We will continue to pray for God’s blessings upon their families.
To Barbara Rexroat, Kaye Carda and the ACLU, I personally and publically bless you for being hero’s in our community. Character is defined by actions, not by outcome.
God bless you all!
Jerry.. done what way? wow, he cant make money by selling a service he buys in bulk. Big deal! And yes if a way was set up for people to invest then i might be interested depending on details.
Thomas.. sorry bud but im not disconnecting my city cable internet. All i can get from att is 768k service and um… LOL!!! im not doing that when i got 5mb.
Dennis.. after city cable “kicked” everyone off my speed increased from 3mb to 5mb download speed and from $65.99 to $55.99. Please tell me, do you think that would have happened if semo and everyone stayed on the network and non of this open access stuff ever happened?
Since I live in the County I did not seek out a petition to sign, figured my name would be thrown out. I do utilize Semo.net as my ISP and have been
attempting to follow the issue closely. Bottom line, I feel the voters in the city and county have been wronged; the entire episode smells like dead fish sitting in the sun; Poplar Bluff is missing the technology boat and with that losing the ability to compete effectively for businesses and business expansion. My hope is that those people who have been elected get back to the basics of a government of the people, by the people and for the people (local, state and federal).
Billy, I suppose you don’t realize that all the ISP’s helped the city get the cable internet started. Invested money and moved hundreds of customer over to the cable network in the beginning to help get them started. This was done to help the city by the ISP’s. As far as bringing in more fiber lines, the city WILL NOT ALLOW anyone else on there poles in town. So, now you tell me where you feel the city had the right to do this.? As far as faster service and cheaper prices? Please let me know how you have managed to get a lower price and faster speeds? I’m on the cable network and my rates have not lowered and my speeds are the same. Actually, all my city utilities have raised 10%. If it had not been for Brian, you would not be able to get anything over 3M. Your city officials believe that no home user needs more than 3M. The pressure by semo.net to be able to offer cable internet at a lower rate is why the city has done this. SO…before you condemn him you really need to understand what has happened.
BILLY how would you feel if done this way? i have no dog in this fight to me it is a matter of principal .. it was you who said stop crying maybe you would be willing to invest in semo.net help brian build this infrastructure
hello, sorry about this decision handed down. it totally inrages me to know how the city is milling to just say voters dont matter. registered voters in butleer county shouldnt be a part in this unless they are offered services from the city. thats are good politics in the offices held. i just hope alot of people would open there eyes and look at facts other than there blind believes. most voters go to the ballots with blind believes with out a ounce of fact in what they believe. its really really sad that poplar bluff voters cant decide what happens to or city without the county non city tax payers input. PLEASE POPLAR BLUFF, STAND FOR WHAT YOU BELIEVE. BOYCOTT CITY CABLE sacrifice internet speeds for what you want. i say that we all just stop paying them, something would happen but everyone has to pull together as a whole. eygpt done it why cant we, its america for heavens sake.
its obvious billy is in the good ol boy group and employed by the cable company. so is opion isnt valid to the voters of poplar bluff his voice doesnt count. because every business in this town should be able to grow and shouldnt be dictated by city when overwhelmingly the voters that pay city taxes spoke and got shut down by our lovely judical system
Jerry… how is it competing when the prices are the same and the network is the same? Brian needs to bring in and utilize his own infrastructure. Why waste time and money with a company when you can buy from the source and have less hassle. Prices were high and speeds were low when semo and others were on the cable network and now with them gone speeds are faster and price went down. How is bringing semo and others back going to help? It didn’t do anything before and everyone was happy because they were all milking the customers. Now semo is mad cause they can’t get in on that anymore.
politics as usual but then again the devils advocate ACLU wasn’t at the top of their game. had you wanted prayer at a government building they might done better. sorry but i have no use for the ACLU .. you have a great cause but politics and power with $$$$$ are hard to beat
{Im glad to see this. Maybe Brian will quit crying now and start competing.} hard to compete when they tie your hands..maybe billy could do a better job.
This is indeed a sad, sad day for Poplar Bluff. I wish I still lived there so I could help vote these idiots out of office.
I wish you well on your efforts to bring it to the attention of higher ups. We tried to get support from elected “leaders” but none of them would take a stand publicly (which everyone knows amounts to nothing). The system works for those who happen to be the only ones who could change it. God knows the regular guy or the outsider have no say here.
I agree as well, we need to vote out some people. This is almost to the point of being crazy. Even the president of our country signed legislation stating that everyone have access to faster internet. And while I agree that its not dial up. Its not fair for the citizens of this town to only have available slower internet speeds, and at higher prices, than any other town around. I mean please all the surrounding areas have faster internet than this town. And for less cost. Just so the city can maintain its strangle hold on their monopoly. I for one and many others are going to be writing our congressmen and governor.
The people who run the city are power and money hungry. The citizens should boycott them in anyway possible.. just like the sales tax to make a 4 lane road is BS. The people at the county are the same as the city as well. Strenfel will lie lie lie lie…
Maybe the people of Poplar Bluff need to have a big rat killing at the ballot box this year or when all these people come up for re-election. I also hope city cable goes belly up over this. Looks and smells like Chicago politics.
Im glad to see this. Maybe Brian will quit crying now and start competing.
I know Brian posted this article but if you haven’t taken the time to read it, you should.
http://www.bbpmag.com/MuniPortal/EditorsChoice/1111editorschoice.php
This is what we were hoping for in Poplar Bluff……
“Public-private partnerships: City investments in broadband infrastructure should create private sector business opportunities. The city sells no services to businesses or residents.”
” nDanville is an open-access network that supports multiple providers and a wide variety of services well beyond the traditional triple play to create true competition and lower prices.”
AND SO MUCH MORE….
:-( for P.B.
Thank you Brian, for your convictions and fortitude to see that individual rights are respected and for allowing we citizens an attempt to insure the continuation of this freedom. It didn’t go in favor of allowing petition placement, however, our voices were heard. Wonder how the city fathers of Danville would judge the actions of the mayor, council and city manager of PB on this matter.