After 20 years of operating in Beat One of Jones County, the equipment and building of Home Cable Entertainment was sold Friday to local residents in a tax sale.

Jones County Sheriff Alex Hodge formally announced the sale on the steps of the Jones County Courthouse in Laurel.

The Jones County property owned by a Louisiana-based cable company was sold to the highest bidder, being Cable USA — which is owned and operated by James Clark and Mike Rivers.

Officials said Friday’s sale was the result of several unsuccessful attempts to reach an agreement with Home Cable Entertainment, owned by Leland Dennison of Louisiana.

The Jones County Board of Supervisors formerly sold the property located on Hamilton Hill Road in the Shady Grove community to some local residents.

Home Cable serves about 114 homes mainly in the Beat One area of Jones County.

Although supervisors pulled the franchise of the cable company earlier this year, Beat One Supervisor Johnny Burnett said Home Cable customers are still receiving service at this time. He doesn’t know when service will end.

However, Burnett said a change was needed.

“The county’s decision to sell the property comes after years of failed attempts to get Dennison to address customer concerns,” Burnett said. “Since Hurricane Katrina, the company has just failed to honor the county’s request to provide service to the customers in the area. They never would respond or come to any of the board meetings to address our concerns or do anything that was being requested.”

Due to this lack of response, the board of supervisors requested that Jones County Tax Assessor Ramona Blackledge research the property. Blackledge later informed supervisors that the company owed thousands in taxes.

Officials said according to records dating back to 2001, the Tax Assessor’s Office discovered that Home Cable owed the county over $19,000 in taxes.

Wayne Thompson, attorney for the board of supervisors, said Home Cable was informed of the need to pay its taxes. However, no taxes was ever paid.

“The Board of Supervisors is appreciative of Tax Assessor Ramona Blackledge and her office for their work on helping the county determine what it was owed and Attorney Wayne Thompson for handling this matter,” Burnett said Friday at the close of the sale. “If it had not been for the fine records of the tax office, I don’t know if we would have been able to get our money.”

Thompson said after Blackledge’s office determined the amount owed, the tax assessor on Oct. 16th issued an execution of judgment notifying Home Cable by certified mail and publishing a notice in the local newspaper of the taxes due and the pending sale of the property for default on those taxes.

Jones County Sheriff Alex Hodge “just carried out the directions of Ramona Blackledge’s office, which was to sell the property,” Thompson explained.