Virginia
Members of the Chincoteague Volunteer Fire Company are disputing the $73,000 fee Verizon Virginia, Inc. estimated it would take to relocate 1,100 feet of 1200-pair copper cable and assorted fiber optic lines serving most of Chincoteague Island – famous for its herd of wild horses. The telecommunication equipment needs to be removed from the site of the fire company’s new firehouse.
Although the cables have not been moved, the fire company plans to begin construction of the new building as soon as weather permits. Main Street station is on the market with SVN | Miller Commercial Real Estate of Salisbury, MD. The list price is $1,260,000.
A Verizon spokesperson told Delmarva Now, “To meet the fire department’s specifications, we proposed burying those cables – an expensive process – but there are other ways to accomplish this. We’ll consider any design changes they are willing to make to reduce costs or lessen the impact to the island’s telecom equipment.”
Denise Bowden, a fire company spokesperson, wrote on Facebook, “Our fundraising money buys $500k fire trucks, $200k ambulances plus outfitting them and also takes care of our precious ponies that everyone loves. We cannot understand how this company can justify these prices.” Bowden claimed a large corporation could perform the service for free for a volunteer, non-profit group.
According to Network World, the dispute attracted the notice of T-Mobile CEO, John Legere, who blasted Verizon on Twitter and offered to pay the service fees for the department.
January 9, 2017
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