HOWELL – Municipal officials have been discussing a plan to possibly add one or more citizens to a committee that would analyze the continuous problems the town has been having with Optimum/Altice.
Township Manager Brian Geoghegan said there is currently no committee that looks over the franchise renewal with Optimum.
Back in October, the Township Council members spoke with the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (BPU) and ordered a reduction in service charges for Howell residents who pay for services supplied by Optimum. Members asked for these reductions because the company has been failing to provide adequate and proper service.
At the most recent council meeting held on November 10, Jerry Baron, who serves on the Howell Environmental Commission, created the idea of possibly having residents sit on a committee and manage the township’s franchise agreement with Optimum.
Currently, there have been no updates regarding the Optimum issue since the October council meeting, according to Geoghegan.
Councilman John Bonevich stated his interest in having a citizen participate in the Optimum issues, saying how he thinks many residents would want to be involved.
Barron inquired how much money Howell has received from Optimum in 2020 after reading the franchise agreement. According to Barron, the Howell’s Information Technology department is supposed to receive $50,000 during the 10-year agreement.
In October, the council passed a resolution stating that Howell officials “have been inundated with complaints from residents regarding inadequate service provided by its cable provider, Optimum/Altice, USA.”
“These complaints existed prior to the COVID-19 pandemic and have only been exacerbated as a result of the failure of this cable provider to provide adequate and proper service to this community,” officials stated in the resolution.
According to Howell’s elected representatives, Verizon also has a franchise in Howell, but the company’s services are currently not available everywhere in the community.
With many residents working from home and children holding school lessons at home due to COVID-19, municipal officials said, “the inadequate service provided by Altice has interrupted the education of our youth and the ability of our residents to earn a living.”
