When will cable be restored for South Pittsburg seniors?

SOUTH PITTSBURG, Tennessee (WDEF) – Residents of a senior living apartment building in South Pittsburg have been without cable TV for two months now.

And it may be the middle of February before its restored.

News 12’s Ashley Henderson talked to some of the residents today.

Watching television is the major source of news and entertainment for most residents of senior living centers.

Residents of the Chester Powell Senior Living Apartments have been without cable tv for two months now.

MARTHA UNDERWOOD 18 YEAR RESIDENT: “Oh, it’s just terrible!”

The previous cable provider stopped service two months ago.

JAMES DELONG, CHESTER POWELL RESIDENT
“Blue Ridge went out of business, and it was pretty sudden, and when that happened it was a gradual disconnect from phone to the channels slowly going away, and then finally it went away.”

James Delong says they’ve repeatedly asked when the cable might be reconnected, but thus far haven’t gotten an answer. Some of the residents also lost their landline communications.

DELONG: “For the ones who needed a phone, they provided, Blue Ridge provided the phone for them, some of us got cell phones so we really didn’t need a land line.”

We spoke with Lisa Bradford, the director of the housing authority. She showed us the contract that was signed way back on November 26th with Charter cable to provide service to the apartments. She’s been emailing repeatedly to get some idea of an installation date.

One such email reads: “Can you please reach out to someone who can give me an update on the construction? I signed the contract almost 30 days ago. It’s terribly difficult to just continue to say that Charter can’t give us a time frame yet. I realize that it could be a 90 day process, but since we are 30 in, I was hoping that we could get some kind of information that we are able to provide these elderly tenants.”

UNDERWOOD: “They just don’t know what to do with their self. You read, listen to the radio, and that’s just about it.”

Housing Authority Director Bradford later shared with us that Charter has finally given a target date of mid-February to have the cable service restored.

In South Pittsburg, Ashley Henderson, News 12 Now