Dangling from a cable off Stafford Avenue is a three-foot section of a utility pole that nobody wants to admit belongs to them.
“Nobody wants to take ownership of it,” said city Councilor Mike Rimcoski. “It’s an accident waiting to happen.”
City officials said that Connecticut Light & Power has checked out the pole and determined that it’s not one of theirs.
Other utility companies have been notified, but so far nothing’s been done to remove the potential hazard.
Dale Clift, the city attorney, said that abandoned utility poles are “a perennial problem” for Bristol. The orphaned poles remain standing after whoever installed them has no further need of them, he said.
Rimcoski said the section dangling near the corner of Stafford Avenue and Marvin Street is a particularly dangerous problem.
“It’s just a piece of pole and right now it’s being held by a cable line,” Rimcoski said, adding that it could fly down on someone in a strong wind.
A Connecticut state senator, Bob Duff, a Norwalk Democrat, introduced a measure this session that would require the timely removal of double and bare utility poles.
The proposed law would require the state Department of Public Utility Control to establish uniform procedures and time schedules for removing excess utility poles across the state. A legislative committee is looking into it.
City officials have long complained about their inability to get the various utility companies, which include phone, cable and power providers, to remove old poles when new ones are installed.
At one point last year, there were more than 200 orphaned poles in Bristol, by the city’s count. Some have since been removed.
Copyright 2009. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com
