– Some St. Martin Parish Council members and Parish President Pete Delcambre were critical of internet and cable TV provider Optimum for what they felt were lessthan- straightforward efforts to bring high speed fiber optic internet services to the City of St. Martinville without getting specific permission from the parish council for access through the parish to the city, and for installation of lines in areas where the company has not received parish permits to install such lines.
Optimum Senior Director of Government Affairs Johnny Moyer spoke to the council’s Administrative/Finance Committee this past Tuesday to seek permits from the parish council to provide internet access to some parish residents on the outskirts of the St. Martinville city limits.
But Councilwoman Carla JeanBatiste had strong words for Moyer about the company bringing access to the city along routes not approved by the parish.
“What is your plan and intent? What area are you trying to cover? Is it all over the parish?” JeanBatiste asked.
“Not right now,” Moyer said. “Right now we’re here in the City of St. Martinville that we’re working on right now. We do have a small section of about 500 homes northwest of the city here that we’d like to build into.”
Moyer was looking to get a letter of no objection from the parish council to add fiber optic lines to those neighborhoods in the parish to the northwest of the city.
Ninety percent of the lines would be aerial (attached to utility poles) and the rest would be buried underground. The underground cable would need to get parish approval.
“So y’all didn’t do anything coming down 92-1 in Cade, coming across 182?” JeanBatiste asked, raising her concerns again about the company bringing fiber optic cable through the Cade community that is serviced by Cajun Broadband, which was helped by a federal program that expands broadband internet access to rural areas.
“We came down 92 through the state rightof- way,” Moyer said. “That’s still within the parish,” JeanBatiste said. “That was the question, if y’all had done any work in the parish yet. Even though it’s a state right-of-way, it’s still within St. Martin Parish.”
JeanBatiste asked if Optimum had placed any lines near Breaux Bridge, and Moyer said the only place that Optimum is placing internet cable is for the City of St. Martinville, and nearby areas if granted by the parish. The company does provide cable TV service in Cade after purchasing the franchise there from Cox Cable 15 or 20 years ago, he said, but is not providing internet access in Cade.
JeanBatiste asked Moyer about a ceaseand- desist order issued by parish attorney Lee Durio, and Moyer said the company had answered the order. Optimum has a state franchise for cable service in Cade, and state rightof- way access because of it along La. 92-1, a state road.
“In that letter, we also said we would work with local permitting regulations,” he said. “But our access to the right-of-way for that is through the state franchise.”
Durio said Cade wasn’t the issue, but other areas of the parish were a concern where Optimum apparently was working.
Moyer said that some contractors work for multiple companies and perhaps that is what people have seen.
“We have contractors that work for us, work for Cox, and even AT&T at times,” Moyer said. “So whoever saw work in that area, it might have had an Optimum label but they work for two or three companies at a time.”
Delcambre asked for clarification on the difference between the state franchise for internet or video and broadband. Moyer said the state franchise is for the cable TV product, and not for broadband access.
Delcambre said his issue with the company is that the company was not given a letter of no objection from the parish in its request to bring the fiber optic cable through the parish to St. Martinville.
“Even prior to that you came down Captain Cade Road (Parish Road 108), which is not 182,” Delcambre said. “Your cable came down Labit, and I went out there and looked at it, and then came down Captain Cade, which is a parish road in St. Martin Parish. That was put in prior to the lack of motion on the right of way and the letter of no objection that had never been given.”
Optimum
Delcambre also said that the Cypress Island area was never mentioned as a location for providing broadband access, but the parish president saw cable up on the utility poles in that area.
“It might have been Cox or someone else, but we don’t have anything up there,” Moyer said.
“Then we need to get some clarification,” Delcambre said. “And we need to get some clarification on Ches Broussard Road. I’m the one that physically saw the Optimum truck, and I have the license plate number. I need to know who owns that line that was put on Ches Broussard Road.”
“I’ll be a hundred percent adamant with you, we have nothing in that area,” Moyer said. “Optimum does not service that area.”
Delcambre said that if the Optimum truck was leased to someone else he’d like to know who it was leased to and is putting up broadband lines in the Breaux Bridge area.
Other business
The Public Works Committee discussed a number of resolutions including two for change orders to contracts.
The first was for an increase of $54,360.24 for the Burlington North Santa Fe railroad crossing portion of the Spanish Trail Industrial Park Access Road Project.
The second was for an increase of $42,129.49 and a nineday extension for the Henderson Water Level Control Structure Repairs Project by Reliant Industrial Solutions.
The committee also considered adoption of an ordinance increasing the speed limit to 45 mph on Division Road in Arnaudville.
The committee also considered adopting a resolution awarding the contract for the Cypress Island/Joe Daigre Drainage System Maintenance Project Phase II to low bidder Down South Construction Services for $1,227,872.
