BOARDMAN — Residents are fed up with cable companies, and it isn’t because of monthly bills and too many commercials.

Boardman Township Administrator Jason Loree said during Monday’s trustees meeting that he and the board know about problems cable companies are causing while installing fiber optic lines for cable TV and broadband internet service.

“We are aware and have been trying to monitor the crazy utility company expansion, with fiber lines running through town, it’s one of the things we’ve been dealing with for a while,” Loree said. “The township form of government unfortunately does not give us the ability to tell these telecommunications companies ‘thanks but no thanks.’ Because it’s regulated by the FCC, they can come in here and work in the right of way and we really have no way to stop them.”

Residents who spoke at the meeting included attorney John Shultz, who lives at the corner of Royal Palm Drive and Park Harbour Drive.

Shultz invoked the famous, albeit notorious, Civil War Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman, who burned Atlanta and continued on a path of destruction straight through to the Atlantic Ocean.

Shultz said Sherman’s direct descendants surely are installing cable lines in the township.

“They have destroyed driveways, and I mean one driveway is almost completely gone where it joins the street,” he said. “They have knocked out street lights, they have put holes in, and

this most recent company just severed the cable line laid down by Armstrong Utilities, who just left.”

Shultz said that before that, it was Armstrong whose work crew severed a gas line, forcing an evacuation in part of the neighborhood.

“Now they have this large, obnoxious equipment, which they have parked all over everybody’s yards,” he said. “They have a ditch witch bigger than a Bobcat, and they parked it in one of the residents’ front yards, without seeking his permission.”

Shultz said he knows the law limits the township’s ability, but hopes trustees will be a voice for the residents in speaking to local, state, and federal lawmakers.

“Tell them these neighborhoods don’t deserve this type of treatment,” Shultz said. “It affects our roads, it affects our safety forces, it affects our property values, and it really affects our well-being there.”

Rod Franzi said he does not think the work crews have enough guidance to do the job properly.

“I think one of the keys to this whole thing, I think you should have an engineer out there,” he said. “I’ve seen one engineer since January that I could speak to. Nobody from Armstrong, one from AT&T, that we had to call. I think that guy was out of Canton.”

Franzi said he’s spoken to some of the workers and found they are often ill informed about what other utility lines are along their work path.

“They don’t know where things are, or they tell me they didn’t know that something was on the blueprint. I just think they should have somebody there at least once or twice a week to guide them along,” he said.

HOPE FOR A SOLUTION

Right now, Armstrong, AT&T and Comcast are all operating in the township. Roads Superintendent Kim Blasco said her understanding from speaking to some of the crews is that the feverish work rate is all about competition and who can get their network’s lines completed the fastest.

Loree said the situation is out of the hands of the PUCO, although residents can call the commission and make them aware of the problems.

“But we also recommend you call the FCC,” he said. “We also have contacts for State Rep. Tex Fischer, (R-Boardman) and State Senator Al Cutrona (R-Canfield).”

In the short term, Loree said he sees a possible solution, through conversations with Mahoning County Prosecutor Lynn Maro’s office.

“The county prosecutor’s office is aware of our plight, they’ve also had some issues in Canfield, they’ve had some issues in Poland,” he said. Austintown also has voiced concerns about the cable companies and other utility workers. “What we’ve looking at is to see if we’re able to make them post bond to ensure that if they come into a neighborhood, they leave it the way they found it, and if they don’t we can pull the bond.”

Loree said the companies are about halfway through their projects, but the township wants to “pump the breaks and tell them no more working until you post bond.”

Loree said that while the companies do not leave the neighborhoods damaged indefinitely, they also do not fix the damage as they go along.

“What they do is come and do a project in a neighborhood, tear it all up, and then wait until they’re done to bring in a crew to fix it,” he said. “We’ve not only had that with the broadband folks, we’ve also had that with the natural gas folks.”

Loree said residents need to know that their right-of-way is shared with any public utility company, but the township cannot force the company to do things the right way.

“And the recourse falls on the property owner to challenge them to come do it the right way.

Unfortunately, the townships have lost their ability to regulate gas, sewer, water, electric, and now broadband. But it doesn’t mean we’re not here trying to help.”

In some cases, he said, the companies also are leaving old cable line boxes in residents’ yards. This requires the homeowner to file a lawsuit to force them to remove it.

Loree said the township has had success with bonding for zoning projects and even pulled a $100,000 bond from a company when they were not complying with the code.

“A project of this scope, with this many companies, is not something we’ve encountered before as a township, so this is all new territory,” he said. “But if we’re successful in imposing a bond, if we have to, we will pull them.”

Loree said the township also wants to push companies to post door hangers when they enter neighborhoods, to notify residents about the work before it begins.

“And the other thing we’d like them to do is identify themselves as they are working,” he said.

“Everybody sees a white van or a white truck pull up and there’s nothing on it. So that’s what we’re going to be trying to force them to do.”