by Justin Vick

MOORESVILLE – The town will offer financial, human resources, information technology and risk management services to MI-Connection – for a price.

Since Davidson and Mooresville bought the cable company in 2007, buy-in from their residents has been slower than expected, requiring both towns to tap into savings to support MI-Connection.

Local leaders have taken several steps to make MI-Connection profitable, including shifting management from service operator Bristol Virginia Utilities to local control. They also hired a former Time Warner Cable executive, David Auger, to lead the transition.

The agreement, approved by commissioners on Nov. 14, is also part of the transition, Town Manager Erskine Smith said.

“Our staff has been having conversations with Mr. Auger about the way to preserve the most money, but also not really give the town’s services away,” Smith said.

There was some discussion about which town – Davidson or Mooresville – would be able to provide such services. Mooresville is much larger and offers them in-house, Smith said.

The town has provided MI-Connection financial and legal services in the past, while Davidson’s town attorney and public information officer have also pitched in, Commissioner Mac Herring said.

“We’ve been leveraging those resources, we just have a more formal way of doing that, getting some reimbursement for what we’ve been doing for our own system,” Herring said.

As MI-Connection “gets on its feet” and requires less from the town, Herring said the company could provide its own services or maybe continue contracting with the town.

Some of the services and costs outlined in the agreement are as follows:

• Payroll services, such as analyzing reports and developing forms to send to the state and federal government, will cost $108 per position each fiscal year.

• The town will be reimbursed for the actual cost of providing pre-employment screenings, such as criminal, drugs, credit and physical screenings. Other human resources services, such as administering benefits or employee relations and targeting recruitment efforts, will be offered at no cost.

• Information technology services will include licenses for computer applications for $2,360 (40 licenses at $59 each), with the actual cost billed to renew licenses annually. The town’s IT staff will also help MI-Connection with “troubleshooting technical issues” for $50 per hour.