THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, December 11, 1994 TAG: 9412090311
SECTION: SUFFOLK SUN PAGE: 05 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MAC DANIEL, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: SUFFOLK LENGTH: Short : 48 lines
No punches were pulled Wednesday when Mayor S. Chris Jones and the City Council met face to face with Falcon Cable officials.
``I receive 3-to-1 complaints about cable over all else,'' Jones said. ``There's a real concern in my mind about Falcon's commitment to the market.''
Jones said the council was willing to take ``drastic steps'' to solve the problem. Speaking of his constituents, he said, ``They want us to take you and hang you from the highest tree.''
But after the hour-long meeting, when three officials from Falcon explained their plans for the future and their commitment to Suffolk, tensions appeared to ease.
It was the first meeting between Falcon officials and the council in a long time. And in the end, Jack Edwards, Falcon's new regional director for Suffolk, promised that lines of communication would remain open and that Falcon was committed to providing quality service to the city.
``We're here now to basically run this cable system,'' Edwards said. ``I'm not here feeding anybody a bunch of baloney.''
The meeting between the council and Falcon was held to address the council's concerns over cable television service in the city. Suffolk has the highest cable rate in the region. Yet for years, residents have complained of shoddy service, frequent outages and a lack of commitment to customers.
Edwards said Falcon is not fully to blame for past problems. Virginia Power recently made the cable franchise tear down thousands of dollars in cable lines hanging from utility poles because the cable was not hung properly and did not meet federal standards.
Edwards also said he was ``99 percent'' certain that Falcon's home office in Los Angeles will approve a $500,000 project to install fiber-optic cable in Suffolk. The new cable, Edwards said, should eliminate many of the problems that have plagued the system.
Edwards also said the company will now guarantee that technicians will go to a home with cable problems within a specific time frame. If they don't show on time, Edwards said, they will offer customers either $20 or a $20 credit on their next cable bill.
KEYWORDS: SUFFOLK CITY COUNCIL CABLE TELEVISION by CNB