Contrary to Concerns, Cable Project on Track

Resolving some confusion among residents arising from a recent report, City Works Director Mark Christoffels said this week that a new telephone-cable system is still planned for the city and will be completed in about 18 months.

Christoffels said a recent news report about the cable project being abandoned in Los Angeles caused consternation among some Cypress residents, who thought that the Pacific Bell project also was being jettisoned in Cypress.

“It’s only in L.A. that Pac Bell is pulling out,” he said. “They’re still working here in Cypress.”

The project calls for replacing copper wires now used with fiber-optic cables.

John Britton, media manager for Pacific Telesis, confirmed that the cable project is still planned for Cypress and several other Orange County cities.

The Orange County construction had been temporarily slowed by a diversion of company resources to the San Francisco area, Britton said.

Some Cypress residents said they became anxious when they thought the project had been halted. “We were very upset,” said Rosemary Freman, who lives on Cambridge Street. “Our street has been all torn up in the name of technology, and we thought it was being done in vain.”