BRUNSWICK HILLS TOWNSHIP, Ohio — This story is anything but boring, yet it’s all about boring at the same time. It’s about digging holes that have a potential of being dangerous, even shocking, quite literally. There are local communities in Medina County fed up with the boring that’s causing damage again and again.
“Just so many emotions. I think I’ve been through a lot of them,” said Celia Hardon from Brunswick Hills Township. The cause of her feelings? A massive hole in her front yard.
“Just a lot of the stages of grief for real,” she told us.
THE MASSIVE HOLE IN THE FRONT YARD
Hardon said it all started in October when a company called Frontier hired another company named MasTec to install broadband lines in her neighborhood. She told us MasTec brought in a boring machine and hit her electrical lines, affecting her power. Then, in December, the power company came by when her power went out.
“They jump-started it and they said don’t use more than one light at a time. Don’t use any major appliances or it could blow again,” described Hardon.
So, with candles lit and no stove to use, she raised red flags about her problems to Frontier and MasTech. “They said I had someone come out after them and drill and that’s who caused the damage,” she told us.
“And did you?” we asked.
“No, we never had anyone,” Hardon replied.
TOWNSHIP, CITY FIELD COMPLAINT CALLS
“It’s incredibly frustrating for me to see this,” said Ryan Nixon, a Brunswick Hills Township Trustee.
He told us he’s gotten over 20 complaints about broadband installations around the township in the past few months.
“I think we have to work with the providers a little bit better in order to provide a clearer way of installing lines. There has to be some better way of doing this,” he said. “I urge Frontier and MasTec to come up with a better system so we don’t have these incidents repeating over and over.”
Brunswick Hills isn’t the only community dealing with damage.
In Medina, along Halifax Lane, is where city leaders told us just last week a company hired by Frontier hit an electrical line that put 200 homes in the dark for 10 hours. Plus, the day after the outage, the city said that the company had hit a gas line in the same neighborhood, which is no surprise to Nixon.
“A lot of what we’re seeing online seems to echo exactly what we’re experiencing here in the township,” said Nixon.
FIXED BUT NOT REALLY FIXED
In a stroke of luck, Hardon said on Tuesday, the power company happened to be driving by her house.
“Saw that we still had the huge hole and no electricity. He felt terrible and he got another co-worker and him fixed it,” she told us. And while she can now use more than one light again, she worries about children in the neighborhood who are exposed to problems. “The kids across the street play basketball. Their ball always comes over here. I said please, if it goes in there, leave it. I’ll buy you a new basketball. Do not go in there,” said Hardon.
She’s also worried about other properties dotted with flags for future work. “We didn’t ask for this,” she told us. “They came in because they want to make more money and have more customers. We’re not getting anything out of it.”
We contacted MasTec and have heard nothing back about the damage caused by the installations.
Just after our 5 p.m. show aired Wednesday, Frontier responded with this statement:
We are committed to bringing access to high-speed, reliable fiber internet to homes and businesses in Ohio. Building fiber is a complex process, and we take every precaution to ensure safety and prevent disruptions in the communities we are upgrading. We work closely with the city and state and all of our partners to follow proper protocols and meet our high standards, including securing necessary permits and partnering with utility locating services to help us avoid hitting underground lines. We value feedback from the community as we expand our fiber network, which is why we provide flyers with our contact information and details about the build process in advance of construction. Our goal is to be a good community partner and to deliver high-speed, reliable fiber connectivity to even more people across Ohio.
Nixon suggested that residents take a picture of their yards before work starts and after it begins so they have evidence of what has been done to their property during installations.
