West 12th Road Utility Poles

There are at least two (2) utility poles on West 12th Road that have shifted off center over a period of time as a result of our island's water table and exacerbated by tidal flooding and seepage.

The most seriously compromised pole is at the end of our block (pictured at left) and has shifted at least 10 to 12 degress off center.

This condition has been brought to the attention of the city on several occasions in our meetings over the years regarding the issue of tidal street flooding on West 12th Road ith no response. 

A downed "live" power line is unsafe enough but a live line falling onto a street flooded with salt water is a exraordinarily dangerous.

The West12th Road Block Asociation recently contacted Assemblywoman Audrey Pheffer's Office regarding this condition, providing pctures of same, and the Assemblywoman's Chief of Staff, JoAnn Shapiro, contacted Con-Ed which evoked the following response from that agency.

From:  ConEd
Subject: RE: light poles in need of attention

Jo Ann, I have received your email and certainly will have this furthered (sic) reviewed. Please understand the tornado last week did substantial damage. We restored 37,000 customers but we still have more work to do. Over 100 of our poles are leaning and cracked as a result of the storm and will take 3-4 weeks to repair. Again I will certainly have the information you sent me reviewed. However please understand this may take some time.

Our documentation shows that the earliest the city was made aware of the condition of these power poles was October of 2006, some 4 years ago, and several times thereafter.

We will revisit this issue in "four weeks", on Otober 25, 2010, after ConEd has had sufficient time to deal with the damages of the September 16, 2010 tornadoes.