Time Warner Cable is shutting down its Coudersport call center
support services in early February, eliminating 500 jobs from a
town still reeling from jobs lost in the Adelphia scandal.

Maureen Huff, director of corporate communications for Time
Warner, said Wednesday that the company knew this day might come
when they took over the Coudersport operations in July.

“At that point we already knew the cost structure for this
center was significantly different than the others,” she said,
explaining it was more costly to maintain than the company’s other
centers. “We tried to create a business model to allow us to keep
this call center and keep these jobs in Coudersport. Unfortunately
we have not been able to do so.”

She said the employees’ last day will be on or around Feb.
5.

“This decision reflects the fact that we are not the cable
provider in this area and we have other significant call center
operations throughout our service areas,” reads an employee
announcement Huff sent to The Era.

The Coudersport offices will still remain open and about 75
people in the IT and engineering divisions will continue to remain
employed there.

“For those employees who will be affected by this announcement,
we will provide career transition services and severance benefits.
For those affected employees who are interested, there are enough
job openings in call center positions throughout the company for
all to find jobs,” the announcement reads.

Huff said the closest call center in the Time Warner company is
in Buffalo, N.Y.; there are no other call centers in Pennsylvania.
She did not, however, know how many positions may be open at that
particular facility.

“That’s going to be a constant variable,” she said, adding that
she could not say how many positions would be open at any one
center, but that Time Warner has centers across the country. “There
are enough jobs for the affected employees.”

And Time Warner is offering other employment assistance to those
affected by the decision, as well.

“We have secured the services of Right Management Consultants,
who will be helping us with a variety of services, including
internal placement assistance, career transition workshops, career
assessment, resume assistance, networking workshops, individual
consultations, job fairs and access to Right’s job vacancy
database,” the statement reads. “We will also provide severance
benefits, a “stay” bonus for those employees who stay, in good
standing, until early February 2007, and confidential counseling
services through our Employee Assistance Program.

“Given the quality of the employees and the importance of the
call center to the community, we have spent the last few months
looking at options to keep the call center open; however, we could
not justify it economically or operationally,” the statement reads.
“We know that this decision will significantly affect the lives of
a number of people, and there is no easy way to close an operation
in any community. Time Warner Cable is committed to providing each
of the affected employees with as much transition assistance as we
possibly can.”

Potter County Commissioner John Torok said Wednesday night that
the news of Time Warner’s decision came at a bad time of the year –
right before Christmas.

“It was not good news, but the Board of Commissioners does not
run the company,” Torok said. “We have given them in the past every
break we could. We’re with the rest of the community … we don’t
know where to go from here.

“We, the Board of Commissioners, have done everything we could
do to encourage them to stay,” Torok said. “They’ve done what they
have to do as managers and good businessmen.”

But Coudersport has been through tough times in the past and
will make it through again – together as a community, he added.

“This is a tough community,” Torok said. “We will survive. That
doesn’t mean that people won’t be hurt. This is one of those times
when a community shows its strength and comes together. We’ll
embrace each other and work through it.

“We’ll take it one day at a time. We’re not the first community
to be hit like this and I’m sure we won’t be the last,” he said.
“In today’s business world, if you think you are not vulnerable to
this situation, get ready. Tomorrow is another day.”