LEBANON, Ohio — While speaking with Lebanon residents at our most recent Let's Talk event, we were given images of damaged metal boxes in the Garfield Park neighborhood. We've since visited the neighborhood while following up on residents' concerns.
"It looks pretty rundown," resident Rhonda Greathouse said.
On Thursday, we spoke with resident Russell Money, who showed us a damaged box in his and his neighbor's front yard.
"It looks like a hazard to me," Money said.
The box in his yard had been damaged in a crash, Money said.
"My neighbor said he had actually called about the boxes and that was like, probably six months to a year ago, and no one ever came out, responded or anything," Money said.
We called Brian Lazor, Lebanon's deputy city manager, who said that these are telecommunications boxes. The responsibility to maintain or remove them would be on the utility that installed them, according to the city.
Watch to see our work to get answers on damaged telecommunications boxes in one Lebanon neighborhood:
Lazor said these boxes are not the city's responsibility.
To figure out who residents need to call, we started by looking at the sticker on the box with its door left open. One of the boxes said, "United Telephone of Ohio."
Through various internet searches, emails and phone calls, we learned that the carrier has changed hands throughout the years and it is now operated by a utility company called Brightspeed.
We spoke on the phone with Brittany Waugaman, a public information officer for the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO). She pointed me toward an online resource that can inform residents of their local carriers. The state's map confirmed that Brightspeed is the "Incumbent Local Exchange Carrier" (ILEC) for the Lebanon area.
Then, we reached out to Brightspeed and were sent this statement by a spokesperson: "After further investigation, our local team arrived onsite to determine that one of the boxes belongs to Brightspeed and the rest belong to Spectrum. The Brightspeed box has been repaired. For any future inquiries regarding damage to Brightspeed equipment, customers and residents are welcome to contact 844-209-1483, a number found on our website."
Right around the same time we received that statement from Brightspeed, one of the company's workers was on scene and repaired the box at the front of the neighborhood.
After receiving a statement from Brightspeed, we called a spokesperson from Spectrum, who said they had no official statement at this time.
While investigating the issue of damaged telecom boxes, we also reached out to Altafiber. A spokesperson told us residents "should always contact their current utility providers with any questions about existing infrastructure on their property."
If any other residents have concerns about this issue, please reach out to me at sam.harasimowicz@wcpo.com or 513-919-1118.
Waugaman from PUCO also said that residents can reach out to the commission if they still need help.
"If they've reached a dead end, if they've tried reaching out and gotten no response, they can contact us and one of our investigators can help follow up," Waugaman said.
PUCO's call center can be reached by calling 800-686-7826.
