Council members raise complaints about fiber installation, mailbox damage and extended AES outages

During staff and council reports, members spent significant time on neighborhood infrastructure issues connected to a citywide fiber installation and recent power outages.

Mr. Del told the committee crews have not completed work in his neighborhood and criticized placement of large green utility boxes that obstruct landscaping. He said a contractor ran over his lawn and damaged his mailbox and that he had not received promised repairs. He also reported drainage problems where installation trenches have not been finished.

Mr. Del described repeated electric outages since the transition from DPNL to AES: one household lost power at 5:00 p.m. and, he said, AES did not respond until the next morning. He added that service restoration times feel longer now and recounted multiple outages in a short period. "They had no electric all night long... AES did not show up until like 10:00 the next morning," he said.

Mr. Del and other members also expressed concern about a reported data-center firm that may acquire AES, warning about potential high water usage and environmental effects if data centers locate nearby. "They use millions of gallons of water a day... and that 10 million gallons a day comes out, it's polluted water," he said, characterizing what he had read online and urging the council to monitor the situation.

Miss Marcus and other council members provided operational updates: a supervisor named Jason Campbell has been fielding resident questions, and the city engineer (Benjamin) said work began last week in German Village with restoration expected to continue through the summer. Miss Marcus noted some wards have aerial fiber installations and recounted that in one outage "the guy cut the line in half," underscoring problems with utility line damage and service reliability.

Council asked staff to be points of contact for residents and to coordinate with contractors and utilities on restoration and communications.