Scioto County Commissioners voted in favor of a phone system maintenance agreement with Freedomlinx at Thursday’s meeting.
Scioto County Commissioner Bryan Davis said this was the first step in the move away from Frontier Communications’ service. Frontier’s phone outages plagued local residents in the past few days and saw 911 communications in Scioto and Pike Counties go down multiple times for extended periods. Multiple times, Frontier announced that 911 services were restored only to have them go back down again. Pickaway County 911 was also affected.
“If anybody’s noticed, we’ve been having some issues and we are working to resolve this by slowly but surely removing ourselves from Frontier who seem to be having a lot of issues. This will be for the maintenance of our phone system here. This is also for the phone system at the Sheriff’s Office.”
Davis said this was a positive move that would mean good things to come.
Cooperation Saves Townships Money
In other business, the Commissioners approved a memo of understanding between the Scioto County Engineers Office and the Morgan and Jefferson Townships Board of Trustee. Commission Chairman Scottie Powell said the MOU helped facilitate sharing of equipment and taking care of property easements. “It’s good to see the collaboration between the township and the engineering department. It helps save the county money. It helps save the townships money.”
Commissioner Davis said he appreciated Scioto County Engineer Darren Lebrun’s efforts. “I hear nothing but praise from the collaboration efforts with our townships. He does a really good job of saving folks money. On top of that, the City of Portsmouth has now signed on to be part of the hot mix program which will save them money on paving. That’s really a hot-button issue right now.”