Cranberry to talk about cable upgrades at ‘Manager’s Coffee’
Cranberry Township will host a “Manager’s Coffee” talk from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Oct. 11 to address ongoing cable infrastructure upgrades in the region.
“This is a relevant talk topic because there’s lots of chatter in the community about the project and the disruption it’s causing in the neighborhoods,” township manager Dan Santoro said.
This will be the township’s first “coffees and conversations” in 2023 in the municipal center’s council chambers.
“The intent here is to provide residents the opportunity to hear from a big-picture perspective how we got here and where we’re at,” Santoro said. “It will also provide an opportunity to talk directly with the cable providers, and they’ve all indicated a willingness to attend.”
Santoro said representatives from the township’s three service providers — Armstrong, Consolidated Communications and Comcast — will all be on-site to discuss their recent effort to upgrade and expand cable infrastructure for residents.
“The project started earlier this year,” Santoro said. “All three cable companies decided to either enhance — in the case of the incumbents, which are Armstrong and Consolidated — or, in Comcast’s case, expand services to residential areas in Cranberry Township.”
The efforts coincided with Comcast’s new franchise agreement as of June 1, seeking to expand its residential coverage to more than 8,000 homes in the township.
“While they require franchise agreements with the township, there’s nothing that prevents them from expanding,” Santoro said. “Nor would we want to, because competition is a good thing for customers.”
Comcast and Consolidated Communication have both decided to expand their areas served in the township, according to Santoro, while Armstrong is making infrastructure upgrades to their existing cables.
“Twenty years ago it was direct buried cables — cables buried in the ground,” he said. “In those places, the standard now is you do it in conduits so you can put new wires in and out without disrupting people’s lawn.”
For now though, crews will need access to the rights of way on residents’ lawns to complete the upgrade, according to Santoro, which he cited as the most common concern.
“Most of the concerns revolve around that construction, the function of that construction, the repair and putting the lawns back to the way they were beforehand,” he said.
Despite these frustrations, Santoro said the upgrades and expansion satisfies “one of the largest requests” from residents for increased service options in the township.
“While the construction is a temporary inconvenience over the next year or so, long-term, it will be good for customers to have competitive services here,” he said.
Santoro also said the projects “speak highly” of how the company’s view Cranberry Township and southwestern Butler County.
“It’s almost a statement with regard to their confidence in the market that we are here that they’re willing to take that step,” he said. “So it’s a good thing for our residents.”
As of now, Santoro said the work is expected to continue at least into 2024.
“It’s really in those company’s hands as to how fast they can get through all the neighborhoods they’re going to,” he said. “So I think it’s realistic to expect that we’ll see it through the rest of this year and certainly into next year.”
The “Manager’s Coffee: Cable Chat” will be held Wednesday, Oct. 11, at the Cranberry Township Municipal Center, 2525 Rochester Road, Cranberry Township.
Conversations and coffee with Santoro and representatives from the service providers will run from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. in the center’s council chambers.
For more information about the event or frequently asked questions about the upgrades, visit cranberrytownship.org.
