CABLE FIRM'S `ROCK' GONE FROM YARD; RESIDENT'S COMPLAINT SPARKS ACTION.

Byline: Angela M. Lemire Staff Writer

Valencia resident Michael Hudek won't miss a certain lawn ornament once it's removed from his yard.

After wrangling with MediaOne over an aboveground pedestal installed on his lawn - which he claims damaged expensive brickwork and landscaping - Hudek no longer considers himself between a rock and a hard place with the cable television giant.

Officials from the company agreed to remove from the utility easement on his property a two-by-three hollow ``rock'' that camouflages an aboveground transmitter providing cable access to customers in the neighborhood. It will be removed within two weeks, the company said.

``They're pretty much moving faster than I expected,'' said Hudek, who invited several MediaOne regional project managers to his residence this week to show how cable technicians had damaged at least one small tree and damaged a brick planter to install the rock.

After viewing the area, MediaOne officials offered to remove the faux boulder, pay for repairs and relocate the transmitter off his property, Hudek said on Friday. Company officials could not be reached for comment.

``Once they saw it, they understood the aesthetics of what they had done. . . . I appreciate what these gentlemen are doing for me,'' he said. ``Of course, I'll be completely satisfied once it's gone.''

With that, Hudek became one less name on a growing list of residents irked by recent MediaOne transmitter upgrades on properties throughout Santa Clarita. The aboveground pedestals, masked by large fiberglass rocks, replace underground devices.

The city permits MediaOne to place equipment on utility easements along residential properties. The cable company previously maintained its electrical components in underground housing throughout Santa Clarita, but recent technical upgrades that are sensitive to heat and underground moisture required aboveground pedestals, according to a company spokesman.

The company is spending more than $5.6 million to perform similar upgrades across the nation by the end of 2000. The new broad-band technology follows a growing consumer trend of obtaining services of high-speed Internet access, telephone and cable television through one provider.

The company in the last two weeks instituted a new action plan to streamline communication with customers, involve them in aesthetic decisions before installing the pedestal boxes and answer questions in a timely manner, Stephen Sawyer, a planner for MediaOne, told the Santa Clarita City Council at a recent meeting.

From now on, residents will receive letters of notification if MediaOne will utilize their property easements, Sawyer said. The letter also includes color pictures of pedestal options, such as styles and colors, and invites residents not home during installations to call and schedule appointments.

Still, some residents continue to push for the fixtures to be blasted from their neighborhoods altogether, claiming that protruding metal locks on them pose safety hazards and the ugliness of the hollow rocks may reduce their property values.

``I am actively trying to organize residents to protest this monstrosity on our front lawns,'' said North Valley resident Bill Spaniel, who has hand-delivered flyers to more than 150 households with rocks in their neighborhoods. ``We who have these in our front lawns are not happy. I get phone calls roughly every other day from more and more people on this.''

Residents opposing MediaOne's aboveground pedestals plan to attend the next City Council meeting on July 13 as a united group and demand that the rocks be obliterated from neighborhoods, Spaniel said.