Telephone rate hearings are making news all over Medina County these days. But a look back into the years when Brunswick was experiencing its "boom" is an interesting aside to the 25th anniversary celebration in 1985.

Those who complain about service are obviously newcomers to those who experienced the glory years of the Northern Ohio Telephone Company (NOTC) prior to its purchase by GTE.

There is little to compare with the "fun" of multi-party lines - only four if you lived near the center of town and were really lucky - and the three-minute cut-off.

A typical scenario would be: spending 45 minutes trying to get access to your line, dialing at least three times to get through to Cleveland, perhaps getting Chicago or Houston instead (it was a common phenomenon), and then getting a buzz at three minutes and being cut off.

The most popular spots in the area were Slansky's Nursery at the bottom of Stony Hill in Strongsville and Bennett's Corners. It was there that banks of phone booths with Cleveland numbers were constantly occupied by Brunswick residents who just couldn't afford the calls to Cleveland.

ON JUNE 24, 1958, a formal complaint was filed with the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) by the Brunswick Civic Corporation on behalf of more than 1,000 residents who alleged poor transmission, delays in reaching long distance operators at Medina, discourteous operators and office employees, lack of sufficient outdoor pay stations, lack of information as to number changes in installations, undue delays in providing service after application is made, phone outage during rainy days and discrimination in rates charged by virtue of the fact that the base rate area was very small as compared with other exchanges operated by the company.

On June 28 of that year, NOTC put into service a new central office with 600 lines of new equipment, replacing the existing 400 lines.

The commission found that the 39.5 square-mile Brunswick telephone exchange had 2,121 subscribers. Only 84 of them had one-party service; 283 had five-party and 1,799 had 10-party lines. And, they also found in their interviews that this was improved service over what had previously been offered.

THE CIVIC Corporation then began its drive to try for Extended Area Service between Brunswick and Cleveland - a drive that was to last for more than 10 years before its successful completion.

In 1960, Brunswick City Council heard, at its Aug. 8 meeting, a report by councilman Jacob Miller of the utilities committee. Miller read a letter sent to the NOTC for toll-free service to Cleveland.

That same year, Carl Ola, Jr., who was a councilman and later council president and mayor, was named to the committee. Ola was working for Ohio Bell at the time and was familiar with the processes for trying to obtain that service, and he chaired the ensuing years of battle.

Ola recalled explaining to the Chamber of Commerce that Ohio Bell wasn't going to offer extended area service (EAS) just because people wanted it. "In 1961, Col. William Henry (owner of NOTC) helped us by taking an engineering survey and estimating costs of EAS," Ola said in a recent interview. "But by 1963, we hadn't gotten anywhere. Finally, in February, we had the results of the socio-economic study by the planning commission which was a good basis for a presentation."

MEMBERS OF THE utility committee, he said, were Al Lausch, Ed Castle and Jacob Miller. Members of the Civic Corporation were parties to most of the proceedings and consolidated their efforts.

A meeting was called in Beelvue, home of the NOTC, and the local residents asked that the Brunswick phone manager, Clyde Spangler, go along.

"I think he was in trouble because of that," Ola remembers. "But we didn't figure it was any good talking, without the local representative knowing what was happening. We had all agreed not to make individual statements to the press, but the Akron Beacon Journal carried a story that Northern Ohio Telephone had rejected EAS. Colonel Henry was very angry and wrote that such things could interfere with reaching some solidification of goals. I had to apologize all over the place," Ola said.

After that meeting, a concerted effort to poll every telephone subscriber regarding EAS was made.

"WE FORMED a survey crew with 30 teams," Ola said. "Over 200 workers were involved in the canvassing process and over 1,000 man-hours of volunteer labor were given. When a volunteer couldn't make contact, the team captain went out. If he or she couldn't do it, I did - until virtually everyone was canvassed."

Results showed only 200 "no-contact" of the 3,349 subscribers. Of those, 91 were disconnected by the time they were canvassed, 2,579 were in favor and only 479 opposed to the service despite expected jumps in basic phone bills.

Following the report, Northern Ohio pledged its support to the effort. But Ohio Bell remained unmoved. Ohio Bell officials said they might try an experimental one-way EAS - Brunswick could call Cleveland but not the other way around. That was considered unacceptable.

The group was granted a meeting with the PUCO in December of that year.

BUT NOW there came another complication. The town of Northfield had applied for EAS with Ohio Bell and that matter was being taken through appeals to the Supreme Court. Everything came to a halt because the Northfield case would set a precedent.

On July 15, 1965, the Brunswick case was filed before the Public Utilities Commission by the committee on behalf of the CAnal 5 exchange. In April 1966, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of EAS to Northfield, laying the groundwork for the Brunswick case. Hearings were set.

"After the first hearing, it was plain we had made a strong case for one-way service from Brunswick to Cleveland. But we hadn't proved need for two-way service," Ola said. "We requested a second hearing and finally received one on April 14, 1967.

"PRIOR TO THE hearing, the Ohio Bell and Northern Ohio people met with me and agreed to drop their objections to two-way extended area service if we agreed to a 24-month installation instead of 18 months as was ordinarily requested. Of course, we agreed," he said.

The final agreement was filed Oct. 30, 1967. In 1968, Ola became mayor of Brunswick and was in office when the project was completed. Ironically, he was in the hospital and his wife, Terry, got to ceremoniously throw the switch providing the longed-for service. It was October 1969, some 11 years after the initial requests surfaced.

It was worth the wait. And, surprisingly, following EAS, service in general began to improve. Then GTE purchased the old NOTC and began to make millions of dollars in improvements all over the county.

It still remains a mystery to most residents why EAS isn't available within Medina County. But considering the time and effort it took for Brunswick's battle - is it any wonder?

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