CEO Roundtable: Ben Lomand is county’s biggest taxpayer
Ever wonder who is the largest taxpayer in Warren County? It is none other than Ben Lomand Telephone Cooperative.
Ben Lomand pays $343,023 to the county and $218,363 to McMinnville, for a total tax contribution of $561,386. This local telephone cooperative was founded in 1952 and began operations in 1954 by a group of local businessmen.
Ben Lomand Telephone Co-Op, along with its local subsidiary, has grown to be the 42nd largest telephone company out of 1,350 in the U.S. Ben Lomand serves 36,500 customers covering Warren, White, Van Buren, Grundy, Coffee, Marion, Bedford, Rutherford, Cannon, and DeKalb Counties plus an additional 6,500 access lines being served with their subsidiary.
In addition, service is being provided to approximately 10,500 internet users. Major growth has been enjoyed over the last 10 years averaging 5 to 8 percent each year. Employment has doubled over the same period to 166.
Ben Lomand Telephone Cooperative was one of the first Tennessee telephone companies to offer long distance service. Ben Lomand was also the first rural location in Tennessee to provide a communications hub for a major carrier (1993 – MCI).
Ben Lomand’s growth allowed them to construct a new 43,000-square-foot operations center on Highway 56 that opened Sept. 1. This new facility houses their engineering, CAD, installation and repair, construction and trouble reporting departments. They now have three customer service locations in Warren County, one for the Co-Op on N. Chancery Street and two for its subsidiary -?BLC.
Aside from being our biggest taxpayer, there are a number of additional contributions Ben Lomand makes to our community:
• Over $70 million of new infrastructure has been added within the past 10 years
• $7 to $10 million in annual investment in new equipment: poles, fiber, switches, etc.
• $5 million for annual maintenance.
• A total capital investment base of approximately $125 million, the largest of any local utility or service firm.
• $13 million investment in the main switching station at 311 North Chancery, which can service 100,000 customer lines. The main switch is large and impressive. It is temperature and humidity controlled, fire protected, secured entry only, precise/clean electrical power controlled, and with multiple redundant back-up systems. This should make anyone from Warren County feel good about our technology investment.
• More than $19 million has been returned to cooperative members over the last 16 years as capital credits and has involved a refund every year.
Ben Lomand helps the county recruit new industry by investing in new infrastructure without direct construction or network charges to the users. Virtually all other services will charge for initial installation and hook-up.
Ben Lomand Telephone Cooperative is a telecommunications provider. They can offer local telephone service, long distance telephone service, internet hook-up, DSL service, business telephone systems, LAN wiring for business networks, customized telephone databases, video teleconferencing, and web site design. This goes far beyond just being a telephone service provider.
New services under consideration include cable and pay-per-view TV offered over the same transmission network and a new internet portal with local news, local links, and local ads in addition to regional, state, national, and world news. Both of these new services are in the test and evaluation phase. Ben Lomand continues to invest in Warren County.
An interesting personal tidbit is that telephone service is rendered on DC power. Ben Lomand has its own backup generators at many locations and can continue operations for an extended period of time but more remote locations have battery backup and can sustain 12 hours of a power outage before the DC service will stop.
Ben Lomand Telephone Cooperative is a growing and significant part of Warren County. We appreciate this large benefactor and the investment made to serve this area.