HOWLAND — Companies installing fiber optic infrastructure throughout the county worked through the winter, and township officials are encouraging residents to report anything awry.

As part of his report at Wednesday evening’s meeting, Administrator James Pantalone said that, with the snow melted, phones were “jingling” at the township building.

Pantalone encouraged residents to check the township’s website to learn how to contact officials and contractors — which provides emails, phone numbers and identifying features for fiber companies.

Pantalone said Zoning Administrator Dan Morgan and Public Works Director David McCann have been doing a “phenomenal job” with tracking down contractors and trying to mark their trucks so the township knows who they’re dealing with.

“We certainly need the residents’ help on it — get to our app, send a request in. If you have damage that seems a little excessive to your property, we encourage you to file a complaint with (the) Public Utilities Commission of Ohio,” Pantalone said. “We need the recordkeeping and we need the complaints, service tickets coming to us as well.”

Pantalone reiterated that officials were trying to get a handle on the damage, adding that news got to them quickly as soon as the weather broke.

“We were talking at the department head meeting today — they (the fiber optic companies) worked through the wintertime, and it was all covered up,” Pantalone said. “Now it’s all opened up.”

More information can be found in a March 9 publication under the “News” tab on the township’s website, which has a hyperlinked PDF with the contact information for communication companies.

SOLICITATION PERMIT LIST

Pantalone also updated residents about the township’s solicitation list, which officials approved the resolution for at a February meeting.

Pantalone said only one vendor is on the list as of Wednesday night, adding that he received multiple complaints about Brightspeed, a telecommunications and internet service provider, but officials planned to contact them Thursday.

“We do have an active permitting process, a vendor list, as well as a no-solicitation list that is going out to these people to avoid going to residents, so that is also on the website,” Pantalone said.