Ziply Fiber, the company installing fiber optic cable throughout Keizer is pledging better construction tactics and more attention to complaints.

Company officials made the promises recently to the Keizer City Council as it sought the city’s approval of a new franchise agreement.

The work of Ziply and its partners over the summer provoked one complaint after another to city officials.

“There was damage to driveways, water lines, sprinklers,” said Bill Lawyer, Keizer public works director. “They hit some of our facilities a few times.”

He said the contractor installing the cable “was horrible about following up on damages.”

Councilor Lore Christopher said during the council discussion that Ziply’s performance was a “hot freakin’ topic” in the community.

She elaborated in an email and interview.

“Residents were often unsure who was working on their property, what the utility flags represented, when those flags could be removed, and who to contact if restoration work was not completed to their satisfaction,” she said.

She said construction workers would appear on private property with no indication who they represented.

And the work left damage, such as disturbed landscaping or damaged sprinkler systems, what Christopher described in general as “very minor. It was inconvenient.”

In October, Ziply brought in a new company and complaints have dropped, Lawyer said.

Jessica Epley, Ziply’s vice president for regulatory and external affairs, addressed councilors about the issue in November.

“We got a bit of a rough start in Keizer,” she said. “We kind of built everywhere at once.”

Now, she said, construction will be done in one area at a time.

“We want to create less chaos,” she said.

The work will take longer than expected. The installation to get fiber optic service available for every Keizer home was to be done by the end of the year. Now, Epley said, the work won’t be done until mid-2026.

Epley said the company had hired more help to staff a live phone line to handle complaints.

She said the number was on the company’s construction feedback page. It isn’t.

Another company official said the number – 855-950-0779 – is on door hangers and letters to residents.

Epley said the company was making weekly reports to city officials about complaints.

“I haven’t seen it,” Lawyer said last week.

Company officials told Keizertimes by email on Tuesday, Dec. 2, that such reporting was “beginning this week.”

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