Be careful what you ask

AT&T official gets a earful from selectmen

BY RUTH EPSTEIN | REPUBLICAN-AMERICAN

WARREN Perhaps he shouldn't have asked. When Kinson Perry, area manager for external and legislative affairs for AT&T, came to a meeting of the Northwestern Connecticut Council of Governments Thursday to get feedback on how the company performed during Storm Sandy, he was met with complaints. The council is made up of the first selectmen from nine area towns. Cornwall's Gordon M. Ridgway began the discussion by saying CL&P was using AT&T Global for phone service, but the phones were still out two days after the storm hit. "Our biggest vulnerability is cell towers and they were down. There was no improvement after the last storm." Curtis G. Rand of Salisbury agreed, saying Verizon has a generator on the town's tower. "We want you to put a generator on our tower." Perry took note of their concerns, saying the firm is working on the matter. Mark Lyon of Washington told Perry AT&T owes a debt of gratitude to CL&P for clearing the phone company's poles of trees. "The telephone company is not proactive in taking things off the lines," said Sharon's Robert Loucks, who added he hasn't seen tree crews accompanying AT&T during cleanups. Canaan First Selectman Douglas Humes asked if AT&T has a trimming policy. Perry said it doesn't. The company works with CL&P. "That's not what we heard," said Humes, who described how a tree came down on a town road in Canaan and the road was blocked for 24 hours. The downed lines were phone lines. The site had to be monitored by the state police for safety purposes. He said he finally took things into his own hands by getting out his power saw and cutting it. "In a lot of areas, it was just phone lines down," Lyon said. "Your guys don't do much when poles are down." Perry urged town leaders to call him directly when there are such issues. He said during an emergency each town should contact its Department of Emergency Management and Homeland Security coordinator to call AT&T. "If there's a serious problem, I want to hear about it, not read about it," he said.