HOWLAND — Conversations with a fiber optics company proved to be fruitful following a late June incident, and Howland Township officials are pushing for broader change across the state by encouraging legislators to consider safety changes.
Trustees at Wednesday’s meeting authorized Administrator James Pantalone to prepare and send a letter to State Rep. Nick Santucci, R-Niles, State Sen. Sandra O’Brien, R-Lenox, Congressman Dave Joyce, R-Bainbridge, and the Trumbull County Commissioners outlining immediate concerns and safety issues regarding fiber-optic infrastructure installation in the township.
The correspondence will summarize measures implemented by Lumos to improve excavation safety and reduce utility strikes and will request legislative and regulatory changes requiring all companies performing similar work to adopt these measures, the resolution states.
Pantalone recalled Lumos’s June 26 utility strike that affected township residents and resulted in the company asking crews to stop work until they could address and resolve utility issues.
Pantalone noted later that day that Lumos officials had a meeting with department heads to discuss plans moving forward.
“They came to the table very willingly, (were) open and brought several items. We also included the marking companies as well in the meeting,” Pantalone said. “They made some suggestions to Lumos as well with how they process tickets, the amount of tickets that they process to reduce that.
“We reiterated some of the processes, such as if a location gets marked, you don’t get there for a long time to do the project, people want to cut their grass, flags get moved, how do we deal with all those things — the law states it needs to be re-marked, it needs to be reflagged.”
Pantalone said the township has uploaded information about what Lumos plans to do and the request to send letters to legislators.
In terms of what Lumos plans to do better, a document from the township states the company has mandated the use of hydro-vac and air knife excavation equipment while exposing underground utilities, which will allow them to be safely uncovered without hand digging.
The document states the method will provide crews with visual confirmation of existing utilities before and during boring operations, which will improve safety for workers, residents and the infrastructure.
The construction process also will be slower and more deliberate, the document states, as the crews will spend additional time verifying utility locations and coordinating with utility locating personnel.
“While this may extend project timelines, the township believes prioritizing safety is the appropriate approach,” the document states.
Lumos also will improve utility marking coordination by submitting smaller groups of requests based on the construction schedule, which is expected to reduce the time utility markings remain in neighborhoods before work.
The document states that residents are expected to receive notification in advance before work begins in their neighborhoods, which will include door hangers, bright yellow informational markers and “yard darts” placed near work areas with project information and contact numbers.
Pantalone said Lumos’s workers have resumed work in the township as of Monday.
“They’re on multiple different streets — it does appear that they have held themselves accountable for slowing their pace a little bit,” Pantalone said. “They’re not really totally covering every street in the township, or it doesn’t seem as though they’re working at a faster pace where they’re beating the marketing list and some of those other things.”
Pantalone said he hopes officials have made some headway, but emphasized the need for accountability at higher levels to hold the companies to adopting safety changes.
Trustee James LaPolla praised Pantalone and Trustee Matthew Vansuch for their work in discussions with Lumos, emphasizing Pantalone’s message about the township being limited in what it’s capable of doing with utility companies — such as making them stop work.
LaPolla said it was unfortunate that it took an incident, such as a resident being accused of threatening fiber optics workers with a gun the week Lumos paused operations, to open people’s eyes.
Pantalone said he and police Chief Nick Roberts met with the resident, acknowledging his frustrations.
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