I thought this would be a good story to relate in the Rural Living forum...
I'm a member of the town council in the small town where I live (Glen Allen, AL). Glen Allen has a population between 400 and 500, no redlight, two railroad crossings, a post office, a school, and 3 gas stations (all 3 stores are along AL Hwy 129 between the post office and the school which are about 7 miles apart). If you look at a map, you'll see how the town extends down the state hwy. The town hall and post office are just north of the railroad and the school is at the south end of the town limits. Like many small towns, it's very irregularly shaped and not very compact. This is primarily due to the practice of extending town limits along roads to provide water to residents along those roads.
Most of the time, excitement is limited to a grass fire or a busted water line. But, last week was an exception. When I got home from work Tuesday evening, my wife said, "You'd better go up to the town hall and see what's going on."
A couple of weeks ago, a state contractor crew came through with a tractor and side-mounted boom mower clearing ROWs along the road in front of the post office. There's a pole in front of the post office/firehouse that has both electric and telephone cables and an electric transformer on it. This pole had a guywire attached that went across the road and attached to a pole on the other side. The boom mower contacted the guywire and cut it loose. Our mayor and town clerk heard the noise and went to check it out. Upon seeing the guywire down, the mayor drove up to where the flagman was to inform him. The flagman was a young man that appeared to be fresh out of highschool. The flagman assured the mayor that their crew had not cut the guywire (even though he was not within view of the incident and the mayor had witnessed it happen, at least audibly). After inspection, the mayor finally convinced the flagman that they had, indeed, cut the wire. The flagman assured the mayor that they'd contact the power company to report the incident.
The next day, the mayor called the power company to see if the incident had been reported. It had not. So, after reporting the incident, the mayor was informed that those poles/wires were the responsibility of the telephone company, not the power company. He was assured that the telephone company would be contacted. They were not.
Fast forward 1 week... With the guywire missing and the wind from the thunderstorms, the telephone wire going over the top of the post office/town hall/firehouse began to sag. Did I mention that there's a trucking company located on the road behind the building? There is. And, they routinely use the road with their big trucks. Did I mention that the telephone line that was sagging went over the top of the building and crossed the road behind the building? It does. Tuesday morning, a truck hit the sagging line and havoc ensued.
It ripped the transformer off the pole, spraying/spilling some nasty stuff (the Alabama Department of Environmental Management had to send out a crew in white suits to clean it up... they even scooped up the soiled soil /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif and tried to take the contaminated boots from a telephone company worker). Sparks from the transformer started a small grass fire which was quickly put out by the startled volunteer firemen that were in the firehouse. The cable came across the top of the buildings ripping the roof turbine vents ("whirly birds") off of the post office and ripped several sheets of metal roofing off of the firehouse. When ADEM was cleaning up the contaminated soil, they ripped up the gas line going into the firehouse which not only destroyed the gas line, but also damaged the gas heater inside the firehouse.
We were up there until late in the evening replacing shingles and whirly birds on the post office/town hall and putting tarpaulin on the firehouse to prevent water damage from the forcasted rains. The town's insurance agent was busy taking pictures of everything and wanted to blame the trucking company. I didn't feel that it was the trucking company's fault because they'd always used that road and the driver had no way of knowing that the line was sagging. Since it was their line, the telephone company (or more likely, their insurance) will probably have to pay for the damages to the truck and the buildings. The state's contractor that was clearing the ROW with the boom mower is really at fault, but I doubt it'll be investigated/pursued that far back.
Made for a very exciting afternoon/evening in a small town!
BR
I'm a member of the town council in the small town where I live (Glen Allen, AL). Glen Allen has a population between 400 and 500, no redlight, two railroad crossings, a post office, a school, and 3 gas stations (all 3 stores are along AL Hwy 129 between the post office and the school which are about 7 miles apart). If you look at a map, you'll see how the town extends down the state hwy. The town hall and post office are just north of the railroad and the school is at the south end of the town limits. Like many small towns, it's very irregularly shaped and not very compact. This is primarily due to the practice of extending town limits along roads to provide water to residents along those roads.
Most of the time, excitement is limited to a grass fire or a busted water line. But, last week was an exception. When I got home from work Tuesday evening, my wife said, "You'd better go up to the town hall and see what's going on."
A couple of weeks ago, a state contractor crew came through with a tractor and side-mounted boom mower clearing ROWs along the road in front of the post office. There's a pole in front of the post office/firehouse that has both electric and telephone cables and an electric transformer on it. This pole had a guywire attached that went across the road and attached to a pole on the other side. The boom mower contacted the guywire and cut it loose. Our mayor and town clerk heard the noise and went to check it out. Upon seeing the guywire down, the mayor drove up to where the flagman was to inform him. The flagman was a young man that appeared to be fresh out of highschool. The flagman assured the mayor that their crew had not cut the guywire (even though he was not within view of the incident and the mayor had witnessed it happen, at least audibly). After inspection, the mayor finally convinced the flagman that they had, indeed, cut the wire. The flagman assured the mayor that they'd contact the power company to report the incident.
The next day, the mayor called the power company to see if the incident had been reported. It had not. So, after reporting the incident, the mayor was informed that those poles/wires were the responsibility of the telephone company, not the power company. He was assured that the telephone company would be contacted. They were not.
Fast forward 1 week... With the guywire missing and the wind from the thunderstorms, the telephone wire going over the top of the post office/town hall/firehouse began to sag. Did I mention that there's a trucking company located on the road behind the building? There is. And, they routinely use the road with their big trucks. Did I mention that the telephone line that was sagging went over the top of the building and crossed the road behind the building? It does. Tuesday morning, a truck hit the sagging line and havoc ensued.
It ripped the transformer off the pole, spraying/spilling some nasty stuff (the Alabama Department of Environmental Management had to send out a crew in white suits to clean it up... they even scooped up the soiled soil /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif and tried to take the contaminated boots from a telephone company worker). Sparks from the transformer started a small grass fire which was quickly put out by the startled volunteer firemen that were in the firehouse. The cable came across the top of the buildings ripping the roof turbine vents ("whirly birds") off of the post office and ripped several sheets of metal roofing off of the firehouse. When ADEM was cleaning up the contaminated soil, they ripped up the gas line going into the firehouse which not only destroyed the gas line, but also damaged the gas heater inside the firehouse.
We were up there until late in the evening replacing shingles and whirly birds on the post office/town hall and putting tarpaulin on the firehouse to prevent water damage from the forcasted rains. The town's insurance agent was busy taking pictures of everything and wanted to blame the trucking company. I didn't feel that it was the trucking company's fault because they'd always used that road and the driver had no way of knowing that the line was sagging. Since it was their line, the telephone company (or more likely, their insurance) will probably have to pay for the damages to the truck and the buildings. The state's contractor that was clearing the ROW with the boom mower is really at fault, but I doubt it'll be investigated/pursued that far back.
Made for a very exciting afternoon/evening in a small town!
BR
