CRANBERRY TWP — Supervisors approved entering a franchise agreement Thursday, June 1, with Comcast, allowing it to offer residential services throughout the township.

According to Josephine Posti, Comcast’s director of public relations, the agreement will allow the company to expand its Xfinity 10G Network to more than 8,000 homes in the township.

“Comcast Business has served customers in this area since 2020 and will start providing its full suite of Xfinity services to its first new customers this summer,” Posti said.

At last week’s agenda planning meeting, township manager Dan Santoro said that adding a competing service provider in the municipality was a “good thing.”

“It’s something that we hear a lot of in the township: ‘Why aren’t there some alternatives?’” Santoro had said. “So, this will accomplish that in terms of service providers in the township.”

According to Posti, Comcast has invested $2.4 billion over the last few years expanding its network in Western Pennsylvania.

Ray Roundtree, senior vice president of Comcast’s Keystone Region, said the move built on the service provider’s existing partnerships with township businesses.

“Expanding our high-speed and reliable internet access to residents will provide important broadband connections they need for their educational, professional and personal lives,” Roundtree said.

Posti also said Comcast participated in the federal government’s Affordable Connectivity Program, offering low-income households a credit of up to $30 per month.

Interested residents can visit xfinity.com or call 1-800-XFINITY to see if they are eligible for service and the Affordable Connectivity Program.

“I would expect residential customers’ service availability later this month,” Posti said.

The board also approved culture and diversity updates to the township’s comprehensive plan.

At last week’s agenda planning meeting, the board held a public hearing on the updates, which included transitioning the Cranberry Area Diversity Network, CADN, into the Cranberry Township IDEA — inclusion, diversity, equity and advisory — team.

Before the vote, resident Nancy Duerring expressed concern over the inclusion of the LGBTQ+ community.

“I appear before the board tonight to request that voting on those changes be delayed to allow residents additional time to review the plan,” Duerring said. “I’m only one voice, but I believe I speak for other persons of faith who have concerns about the LGBTQ movement and inconsistencies with traditional values.”

Colleen Tanner, a member of the IDEA team’s advisory group, asked the board not to postpone its vote by sharing facts about the LGBTQ+ community.

“It happens to be June 1, which is the beginning of Pride Month, and this started being recognized due to something that happened June 28, 1969, which was the Stonewall riots,” Tanner said. “And it is when this community said they would no longer tolerate the criminalization of who they are as individuals.”

She referenced research completed by The Trevor Project — a nonprofit focused on suicide prevention in LGBTQ+ youth — which concluded that 45% of LGBTQ+ youth considered suicide in 2021.

“We also know from this — and there is data after data that supports this — that if they are in a family that is affirming of who they are as an individual, those suicide rates are cut in half,” Tanner said. “We also see a decrease if their schools are gender-affirming and same for the community.”

Santoro said in the year leading up to the amendment’s public hearing, the township has been very public about the process.

“We had many opportunities and solicited much input from the public,” he said. “We sent out a public survey, we pushed things out on social media, to try and bring as much participation in the process about the plan and its recommendations.”

In addition to legally advertising the public hearing for the update, Santoro said the plan was sent out to adjacent communities and school districts for comment.

“I would just simply mention that there has been a significant public process over the last year to engage in getting input to this point,” he said.