Community Watchdog

Many of you email or write to us about the kind of problems we’ve addressed in our Community Watchdog column published in Sunday's Newsday.

We try to give a phone number or email address where you can write or call if you have a similar problem (sometimes it's town-specific).

For instance, whenever we feature a problem regarding a telephone pole, we get people who write in about a problem they’re having with a pole.

If your problem involves a Verizon pole, the number is 800 483 7988. Call and get a work order number from them and then follow up a couple of weeks later if the work hasn’t been done.

It pays to make sure it’s a Verizon problem. If it’s really a LIPA problem, there’s a good chance Verizon workers won’t tell you unless you ask them when they’re there.

We try to have a variety of different issues in the column, so it's unlikely we'll do a pole complaint every week.