A local telecommunications company, SegTEL, is suing Hanover over the development of a municipal fiber optics network that would link the Hanover and Lebanon police dispatch centers. The Lebanon-based company maintains that the network is being constructed in an illegal and unsafe manner.
Hanover Town Manager Julia Griffin said that system, which is the fulfillment of a Department of Homeland Security Grant for Hanover and Lebanon, would enable the two departments to respond to an emergency situation in the other's jurisdiction, should the other department be unavailable. The network, which is already operational in Lebanon, would also enable Hanover Police to observe municipal facilities using secure cameras.
SegTEL's lawsuit has two allegations: that Hanover acted illegally by failing to acquire a license for the project from Verizon, who co-owns the telephone poles, and that the network is being installed unprofessionally and incorrectly, which the company claims could potentially endanger its employees, who have to access the poles several times each week.
"As a large provider of service, not being able to access equipment for fear of being electrocuted is a problem," said Jeremy Katz, SegTEL's president and chief executive officer.
Katz said that he was unaware that the network was being constructed until he saw workers, whom he said arrived in unmarked trucks and without any identification, damage one of the SegTEL telephone poles across the street from the company's headquarters.
"They were just banging stuff around," Katz said.
Katz said he was only able to determine who the workers were by dispatching specialists who concluded that the workers were installing the new Hanover network.
Griffon disputed this depiction of events.
"National Grid, which owns the electric utility, certified that the work has been performed safely and installed properly," Griffin said.
Dave Rebacki, technical manager at Eustice cable, the company installing the network, said that his company performs various installation services daily and that every installation has been successful. Eustice Cable's president, Sue Kay, said that the company has constructed four comparable municipal fiber systems in other towns. Both said there were no technical or structural differences between Hanover's network and these previous four systems.
Rebacki went on to say that he believed that SegTEL's lawsuit was really motivated by its own desire to lease the fiber optics system to Hanover.
Griffin echoed Rebacki's sentiments, saying that SegTEL's primary concern is that it might lose its competitive edge should the new fiber optics system encroach on SegTEL's fiber-to-home service. She said that such concerns would be unfounded because the new system covers only publicly-owned buildings while SegTEL's fiber-to-home service is for private residences.
Katz said that while SegTEL is a fiber optics public utility, Hanover has never been a customer. Katz said that SegTEL "is not in the business of litigating" and that he would be happy to resolve the dispute amicably if Hanover were to remedy the alleged defects of the project.
Griffin disagreed with Katz, calling SegTEL "a very litigious company." She predicted that Hanover will not dismantle the system because similar networks continue to be used in other towns. She said Hanover will use the lawsuit as an opportunity to present municipal communications and security operations as an important government issue.
Griffin said that SegTEL and Hanover did communicate before the suit was filed, but that this communication was limited to a conversation with a marketing representative over the possibility of leasing a fiber optics system. Katz, whose account of the discussions differed from Griffin's, said that SegTEL did express their legal and safety concerns to the town, but that the talks were not particularly constructive.
Katz said that in a separate discussion, Verizon also informed the town that Hanover was not authorized to construct the system.
"That did not end well," Katz said.
According to Griffin, the project has a budget of approximately $160,000, part of which was funded by the grant, and the rest of which was appropriated in May at a town meeting. Estimates of its current state of completion range from 65 percent to 90 percent, and if the project is permitted to continue it should be completed by the end of December.
