The Orion Community Cable Communications Commission, with the help of the village and the township, hopes to be able to have Comcast bring a service office back to Orion Township in the near future.
The commission requested that the Orion Township Board of Trustees pass a joint resolution on Sept. 15, with the village and the cable commission, allowing them to retain legal services from an attorney to enforce the provisions of the franchise agreement with Comcast regarding the location of their customer service office. Cable commission chairman Doug Corliss said the agreement stated Comcast must retain an office with the township’s borders.
“In January, Comcast advised us they were planning to close their Orion office and they were advised this would be a violation,” Corliss told the board. “They tried to find other office space in Orion, and that fell through…they found space in Independence Township and moved there.”
The commission wants to retain the legal services of an attorney separate from the village and township attorneys. The board passed the resolution to retain legal services from Neil J. Lehto.
“We can’t use the village attorneys…they helped Comcast negotiate space in Independence and they were not told it would be a violation,” Corliss said.
“So far, we’ve done nothing,” he added “If Comcast comes in tomorrow and says ‘We want to put an office back in Orion,’ this is all moot. But I don’t see that happening.”
The commission’s goal was to get a Comcast service office back somewhere in Orion.
“Within the borders of the township or the village,” he said.
Treasurer James Marleau asked if Comcast was sharing the rent cost with Orion Neighborhood Television when it shared their studio in Orion Township for their customer service office.
“(ONTV) took over the lease of that building in February,” Corliss responded. “We had an agreement that Comcast would pay half the rent until they moved out, and they did honor that.”
“So this is now putting a (financial) burden on (ONTV),” said Marleau.
Comcast had informed the commission previously that they were trying to move to a “mega center” in the area of Great Lakes Crossing mall.
“We knew they weren’t going to stay at the studio, but we were hoping they’d stay in Orion,” Corliss said.