Community Watchdog

Business partners and neighbors Doug Wise and Michael Sweeney worked together to get an old utility pole removed from their street in Blue Point.
Newsday photo by Gwen Young

We try to help readers who have trouble getting quality-of-life issues resolved despite multiple tries, and who often end up in a bureaucratic tangle.

But Mike Sweeney and Doug Wise of Blue Point didn't need our help to fix their neighborhood problem. Maybe their story will help you solve an issue on your own.

If you’ve been able to solve a neighborhood problem yourself, tell us how you did it. Write to Newsday’s Community Watchdog, 235 Pinelawn Rd., Melville, NY 11747, or email watchdog@newsday.com with the details.

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It took Wise and Sweeney 40 days to get this damaged pole removed from their street corner.
Photo by Michael Sweeney

Accidents happen. This one was at the corner of Eatondale and Park Avenues in Blue Point a few months ago, when a car slammed into the utility pole by Michael Sweeney’s house.

A new pole was quickly installed but the splintered pole was left there.

Sweeney and his business partner, Doug Wise, who lives across the street, started a marathon of calls to get the damaged pole removed but were stymied.

Sweeney contacted us for help, but ultimately, the two-man team got the job done within 40 days.

“Persistence wore down their resistence,” Wise says.

And they used a non-hostile approach. “We were nice,” Sweeney said, “very nice.”

They’d faced frustrations early. Whenever a repair crew arrived from LIPA, Verizon or Cablevision, workers ended up leaving the broken pole. “They’d say it’s the other’s responsiblity,” Sweeney said.

When a utility pole is replaced, all three companies have to move their wires to the new pole before the old pole can be removed. The last utility company to move its wires is supposed to take away the old pole. But travel around Long Island and you’ll see plenty of forgotten old poles next to new ones.

“Basically, you have to coordinate between LIPA, Verizon, Cablevision and the towns,” Sweeney said. “They don’t talk to each other.”

The partners were polite but relentless. “You gotta be nice. You gotta be persistent - no screaming, no yelling and just don’t give up,” Sweeney said.

Recording information is essential, said Wise. “Everybody I speak to, I make sure I get their names, the correct spellings...I speak to their supervisor, find out what their job entails and what they’re responsible for,” he explained.

When crews showed up, “We made sure we met them here, and we coerced them into doing their job. Had we not been here when they came, the pole would never have been taken care of.”

Related sites on this topic:

Jennifer Washburn says she hears two loud bangs from LIPA equipment and then her area of Levittown loses power.
Newsday photo by Gwen Young

My neighbors and I have a problem with our LIPA service. Fifty-one customers on the east side of Ring Lane, the west side of Saddle Lane and the north side of Prairie Lane in Levittown experience frequent power outages due to LIPA’s defective equipment. It happens day or night throughout the year. I estimate we have lost power over 22 times since moving here in 2000. I have called and written to LIPA with no assistance or reply. It is frustrating because our neighbors across the street have power when we do not. We pay the same rates and should have the same service. We’ve ruined dinners because we’ve lost power while cooking, and I’ve lost income because I work from home and can’t access the Internet when we lose electricity. A major concern is that I have a bone disease and am afraid of falling or tripping over a pet when the power cuts off.
— Jennifer Washburn, Levittown

Within the next few weeks, after Long Island Power Authority crews have completed storm and heat-related work, someone will be sent to Washburn’s area to troubleshoot the problem, spokeswoman Elizabeth Flagler said.

In the past 12 months, the cluster of homes mentioned in Washburn’s e-mail has had five power failures, three caused by trees, and nine “momentary outages,” Flagler said, “so it’s not like an abundance of outages.” She was unable to immediately provide comparison figures for other areas on Long Island.

“We will have to go to each backyard to see if there’s something causing a problem at this address,” she said.

Richard Fiorentino says the utility wires in his backyard need to be more taut so they don't hang so low to the ground.
Newsday photo by Gwen Young

I have been trying to have something done about the utility wires in my back yard for many years. The lines hang very low and I think they are dangerous. I have contacted LIPA, Cablevision and Verizon and all say it’s the other’s problem. There is also a problem with a circuit breaker in my yard that blows several times a year, causing a loud explosion and loss of power to the whole neighborhood.
--Richard Fiorentino, Hauppauge

Cablevision sent out a crew after we called and they confirmed the problem wires belong to Verizon.

After we described the problem to Verizon, a manager was sent to the Fiorentino home. “We did see that it was our cable that was drooping,” spokesman John Bonomo said.

The cable would be lifted to make it taut. “Hopefully that will be to his satisfaction," Bonomo said. "He was very appreciative that we were there today.”

Anyone with similar problems should call Verizon’s general repair number at 890-6611. No area code is needed in New York.

LIPA responded to the outage problems by sending workers house-to-house to determine the cause, spokeswoman Elizabeth Flagler said.

They decided there could be too many homes on one circuit and a solution would be to put half the area customers on another circuit. “That should take care of the loss of power,” she said.

Joe Evans has been trying to get lights on Northern Boulevard fixed for nearly four years.
Newsday photo by Gwen Young

I have been trying to solve this issue going on four years. There are a dozen or so streetlights on the north side of Northern Boulevard that borders the Village of Munsey Park in the Town of North Hempstead. The lighting along this stretch is in major disrepair. Not only are a majority unlit, most fixtures are broken or missing. This leaves a heavily traveled roadway dark, including the area in front of Munsey Park Elementary School. The Village of Munsey Park denies ownership. North Hempstead Town Councilman Wayne Wink told me he didn’t know who owned the lights and the town wouldn’t fix them. No municipality will assume responsibility but many would benefit from the repair of these lights.
Joe Evans, Manhasset

North Hempstead Supervisor Jon Kaiman is stepping up to handle this issue. He’s arranged a meeting between the town, the Village of Munsey Park and the Long Island Power Authority May 13 to discuss what to do with the lights, town spokesman Justin Meyers said.

The back story on the lights, according to Kaiman’s research, is that at some point, the former LILCO transferred the lights to local municipalities. But under state law, the town isn’t allowed to own lights within an incorporated village.

So, in 1999, the town notified Village of Munsey Park officials that they needed to take ownership of the lights or contract with the town to maintain them, or they would be taken down. Apparently, no agreement was forged, but the lights weren’t removed.

“It might make sense to take them down, then put up new lights,” Kaiman said. “It’s not a big deal for us, but we can’t do it without authorization from the village.”

Kaiman said the town eventually would also reach out to the villages of Flower Hill and Roslyn Estates, which also have streetlights on Northern Boulevard that aren’t working.

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.

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.

Anthony Palmieri wanted a warped LIPA pole replaced before it caused damage.

I reported a wooden street pole in front of my house to LIPA because it is leaning at about a 30-degree angle and I am afraid it will fall. Someone from the company came to look at it, but no action was taken. I was informed the pole was condemned over seven years ago but never removed. Can you help?

LIPA moved quickly to fix the problem after our call Monday. On Tuesday, an inspector was dispatched and he determined the pole should be replaced. LIPA spokeswoman Elizabeth Flagler said in an email the work would be done Wednesday, and a grateful Palmieri confirmed the pole had been replaced.

A metal marker with a yellow tag on the old pole indicated it was “defective” and required replacement, Flagler said. “This pole was considered low priority.” [See the marker in the video player.]

After visiting Palmieri, we started noticing that there are many utility poles on Long Island that aren’t straight. Hempstead Turnpike in Levittown is a good example.

“Over time, it is not uncommon for poles to shift several degrees due to ground conditions and loadings,” Flagler said.

But they’re not about to fall over. There’s a formula for setting them in the ground, Flagler said: “The rule is 10% plus 2-feet of the pole goes underground, so a 50-foot pole would be buried 7-feet below the surface, leaving 43-feet above ground.

To report electrical emergencies or pole damage, call 800-490-0075.

Related sites on this topic:

Joe Nowotny, the Town of Smithtown's investigations division supervisor for the Department of Public Safety called to report that the large hole in a fence surrounding a preserve in Commack was fixed. Town workers began the repair job on Monday morning and finished by early afternoon.

The break in the fence had been there for at least a year, but the town acted quickly when we called about it last week. Our call was prompted by a reader who complained about fires being set in the sump-turned-preserve behind her home on Gannet Drive.

Kudos to both the town and LIPA for working quickly to keep out trespassers.

Janet Mannion wants the fence of a preserve behind her home in Commack to be repaired. (Newsday photo by Gwen Young)

A fence to keep out trespassers surrounds a Town of Smithtown sump-turned-preserve behind our home. But there’s a large hole in the fence and in 2007, three fires were set in the woods. The opening, adjacent to a LIPA right-of-way, allows the fire-setters, four-wheelers and dirt bike riders free access, creating a dangerous and noisy environment. In June, town safety officers said they would fix the fence, but it’s still not fixed. The police told us that this opening also allowed house burglars to escape from the law as well. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

--Janet Mannion, Commack

Both LIPA and the Town of Smithtown were quick to respond when we called about Mannion’s complaint. LIPA workers installed “No Trespassing” signs at the opening of its right-of-way for high-tension wires and repositioned a horizontal rod to block vehicles from entering the area. On Monday, town workers are scheduled to install about 60 feet of fencing to close up the opening at the preserve.

Long Island Power Authority spokesman Ed Dumas said the utility was unaware of problems at the right-of-way, which is not considered a dangerous area because the high-tension wire stanchions can’t be scaled. However, he said, “We will do outreach, based upon your call, to see if there’s something we can do with the community that would remedy the situation” with trespassers.

Joe Nowotny, investigations division supervisor for Smithtown’s Department of Public Safety, said a work order to repair the opening in the fence was submitted to the highway department last July, but apparently, the work hadn’t been done. After we called, the area was inspected and Nowotny the job would be done on Wednesday. “Unfortunately, it was a bigger job than we thought,” Nowotny said. “It’s about 60 feet. They’re trying to get the whole thing secured.”

Park rangers are on duty 24-7, he said, and town residents who need to report problems with any town park area should call the hotline number, 631 360-7553.