Guenter Bier says his European friends laughed at the broken utility pole, but he saw it as a serious problem.
Newsday photo by Gwen Young
For several years now, there is a broken pole on the western side of corner Woodbury and Bethpage Roads in Hicksville. The lower part is gone and it just hangs on a piece of rope tied to another pole! Our visitors from Europe took photos to show how much our infrastructure is run down here. Every time we talk, this subject comes up and causes big laughter, but it is a serious matter. Perhaps your help will do something about it because I do not know the owner of the pole.
--Guenter Bier, Hicksville
A few days after we called the Long Island Power Authority, workers removed the broken pole.
“We took care of it,” LIPA spokeswoman Elizabeth Flagler said simply.
We’ve heard from many readers who complain about old utility poles that need to be removed. Like Eugene Murtha of Babylon, who says there are so many old poles that haven’t been removed after new ones have been installed in his community, that they’re an eyesore. But he doesn’t know which utility to call.
And many of our readers say they get the runaround, with LIPA and Verizon pointing at each other.
Actually, there’s a pole etiquette between the two utilities.
“There is an agreement between the two utilities,” Flagler wrote in an email. “The utility that removes their equipment [wires] last is responsible for removing the pole,” she wrote. “To determine responsibility for poles requires a tracking of the work performed on the pole. The best way for homeowners to get poles removed is to call one of the utilities and have them make that determination.”
The LIPA hotline for pole removal is 800 490 0075. The Verizon number is 800 483-7988.
