Orleans Officials Push Back On Pole Request

ORLEANS – Utility poles have a ubiquitous presence in communities near and far, and Orleans is no exception. But a seemingly routine pole hearing in January brought to light an ongoing concern about the number of poles in the community, including some that officials say are past due for removal.

A joint application from Eversource and Verizon came before the select board Jan. 17 to install a new utility pole near the intersection of Quanset and Portanimicut roads. Don Voner of Eversource told the board that the pole is needed to bring power to a new four-lot subdivision being developed across the street at 20 Quanset Rd.

But the new pole was to be installed in between two existing ones, leading select board members to question the need for a new installation.

“For a relatively short span, we’re planting another telephone pole in town,” said board member Mefford Runyon. “And that’s something I would use every chance I have to not approve.”

The hearing was twice continued, and on Feb. 14, a request was made by Voner to withdraw the application in light of the board’s concern over what it saw was a new pole that may not be needed.

“Why not angle it and bring it through an existing pole?” asked Andrea Reed of the select board.

Voner told the board that the new pole allows for the easiest and most cost-effective way to bring services to the new development. Running power through one of the existing poles would require some trees to be cut to accommodate the connection, he said.

But the select board was firm in its position that it did not want to see more poles installed in town that may not be necessary.

“I’ll be blunt in that the chances of this select board voting to put another pole in between the two existing [poles] seems to be pretty slim,” said board member Mark Mathison. “I think we’ve made it pretty clear that we don’t think this is the right way to approach this.”

Pole hearings mostly meet approval by the select board without much discussion or debate. But the recent application touched upon an issue that select board members said has long been a topic of concern for town officials and residents. For board member Kevin Galligan, one of the biggest culprits is the presence of “double poles,” inactive poles that continue to stand after new poles are installed to replace them.

“If you ride down 6A...I’m counting seven or eight double poles here,” Galligan said in a call following the Feb. 14 hearing.

Galligan estimates there to be between 80 or 90 double poles currently standing in town. Some, he said, have been in place for years after the installation of their new counterpart.

In most cases, the inactive pole is braced to the new pole. But Select Board chair Michael Herman said he’s also seen ones that aren’t nearly as secure.

“Safety is the primary concern,” he said. “You have these old poles and this old infrastructure that’s barely hanging on. One of the poles isn’t even planted in the ground, and the whole weight is on the other pole.”

In a statement, Eversource said utility poles are jointly owned by electric and telephone companies. Maintenance areas are established that assign the responsibility of installing or removing poles as needed to either the utility or the telecommunications company. According to a maintenance map shared by Eversource, Verizon is responsible for setting and removing poles on the Lower Cape.

“After all utilities have moved their equipment from the old poles to the new ones, the company responsible for the maintenance area is supposed to remove the old pole,” Eversource said in the statement.

The responsible company has 90 days by state law to remove old poles after a new pole is installed.

“Unfortunately, the majority of the time they aren’t meeting that timeline,” Herman said. “And we don’t really have any enforcement mechanism as a municipality ourselves.”

But that could soon change if new legislation comes to pass on Beacon Hill. The proposed Municipal Empowerment Act as written includes a provision that would offer communities the ability to financially penalize companies for their failure to meet that 90-day deadline.

“We’ll see if that even sticks, because the utility lobbyists are going to be fighting to get that removed,” Galligan said. “But if that sticks, I will be the first to say ‘We are going to utilize this in Orleans.’”

And as Galligan sees it, there’s any easy solution to the problem. He said a third party could be hired to work specifically to remove the unneeded and unwanted poles. There’s also a financial incentive for the poles to be removed, he said, noting that the utilities are taxed for every pole they have installed in the ground.

“This to me is a great opportunity to bring some efficiency to the utility service,” he said. “I frankly don’t know why they won’t do it.”

Meanwhile, Herman said as communities continue to move away from fossil fuels toward solar power, electric vehicles and other clean energy alternatives, it’s important for utility maintenance to keep up with the greater demand for electricity.

In the case of the Portanimicut hearing, Herman said news of the new empowerment bill may have emboldened the select board to push back against the request in a way it hasn’t typically in the past.

“This kind of came at a time where we were fresh off seeing this bill from the state,” he said. “We’re getting continued concerns from our residents about the safety and the unsightliness of these poles that are not being addressed in a timely way. I think the whole thing came together on this project.”

In his legislative update to the select board Feb. 14. State Sen. Julian Cyr, D-Truro, touched upon the proposed legislation to address the double pole problem. He advised Orleans officials and those in other towns to send letters of support for the provision to the senate’s ways and means committee as well as the joint committee on telecommunications, utilities and energy.

“Broadly, I think there are a number of frustrations with the utilities, especially on this double pole issue that’s been kicking around for a while,” he said. “Hopefully we can make action on it, make some movement.”

Email Ryan Bray at ryan@capecodchronicle.com