Fayette's

lead cable franchise negotiator is hopeful that

the takeover of MediaOne by AT&T

Communications will bring relief to beleaguered

local customers.

discussion of transferring the cable franchise to

the new owner is on the County Commission agenda

Thursday night, and assistant county manager

Chris Cofty said he is recommending that the

commission approve the transfer.

Local

customers have complained of frequent and

prolonged lapses in service, and reactions that

range from indifference to downright rudeness on

the part of MediaOne customer service

representatives when they call to report the

outages. Customers say they often have to wait on

hold for 30 minutes or longer when they call

customer service.

"I

have met with AT&T officials to make them

cognizant of the ongoing problems we've had with

MediaOne," said Cofty, adding that he has

forwarded copies of his large file of customer

complaints to AT&T vice president for law and

governmental affairs Sylvia Anderson, and to

company CEO C. Michael Armstrong.

"They

have written a letter back saying that they are

aware of the ongoing problems," said Cofty.

"They can't fully address them because they

don't own the company yet... but they have let us

know that they have tremendous resources in cable

operations management available to them," he

added.

Transfer

of the county's franchise agreement from MediaOne

to AT&T is, in a way, a formality,

recognizing the pending merger of the two

companies. But Fayette officials had at one time

discussed holding up the transfer to put more

pressure on MediaOne to clear up customer service

problems in the county.

But,

"It's really two separate issues,"

Cofty said this week. The transfer should be

based on AT&T's fitness to serve the county,

not past problems with MediaOne, he said.

"I've

looked at the financial and operational services

in the cable industry, and they more than exceed

the qualifications to operate a cable

system," he said of AT&T.

And

now that he is sure the company is aware of past

problems, Cofty said he can recommend the

transfer without reservation. "They won't

have acquired something and then say, `We didn't

realize there was this magnitude of complaints.'

They have indicated they will address those

issues.

"They

can't fix everything overnight," he said,

"but they are committed to rebuild the cable

system in the county.

AT&T

has promised to replace Fayette's aging system

with new, state-of-the-art technology by November

2000, one month earlier than MediaOne had

promised the upgrade.

Also

on the County Commission agenda Thursday will be

further discussion of he fate of the Dorsey

house, a historic home that is in the path of the

county's planned jail/courthouse construction

project.

Commissioners

gave city of Fayetteville officials 30 days to

come up with a plan for saving the house from the

wrecking ball, and that time is up. Fayetteville

city manager Mike Brant said the city and

historical organizations will ask for more time.

In

other business, the commission will:

� Discuss appointment of a

Planning Commission member and a Zoning Board of

Appeals member.

Fred

Bowen's term on the Planning Commission has

expired, and David Bartosh's term on the Zoning

Board of Appeals has expired. Both men have

offered to serve another term if the commission

so desires.

� Consider public works

director Lee Hearn's recommendation that the

county buy a Cat 963 track loader from Yancey

Brothers for $182,547. The purchase is included

in the department's budget.

� Conduct public hearings on

two rezoning requests, both involving changes

from subdivision categories to A-R

(agricultural-residential).

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