Staff photo / R. Michael Semple Warren Councilman Greg Greathouse, D-3rd Ward, and chairman of city council’s public utilities committee, stands next to a damaged utility pole on East Market Street. The committee will meet at 4 p.m. Tuesday, and Greathouse has invited representatives of Ohio Edison, Brite Speed and Spectrum to attend to addresss the city’s more than 300 double utility poles.

WARREN — Officials are seeking answers as to why there are more than 300 double utility poles in the city.

During its recent audit of Warren streetlights, Tanko Lighting was tasked with documenting each instance of a “two pole condition.” Councilman Greg Greathouse, D-3rd Ward, and chairman of the public utilities committee, said such a condition occurs when a utility pole in the city, many of which are owned by Ohio Edison, is damaged and the company temporarily attaches it to a new pole.

“Edison comes out, puts that new pole up near or right next to the old, broken pole, and then they strap the two of them together. They tie them up and then fasten them together in some fashion for a temporary repair so that broken pole doesn’t fall down into the middle of traffic and create a bigger mess,” Greathouse said.

The issue the city hopes to address is the amount of time the other utilities, Brite Speed and Charter Communications Spectrum, take to transfer their infrastructure from the old utility pole to the new one while also removing the original pole.

Greathouse said some of the 363 double utility poles in Warren have been strung together for years.

Lauren Siburkis, a spokesperson for FirstEnergy, said the utility company is typically the first to install a new pole and transfer its equipment.

“When that’s done, we notify the telecommunications companies, whether that be cable internet, whomever, to come out and transfer (their) equipment to the new line,” Siburkis said. “When that happens, it’s their responsibility, the telecommunications company, whoever is the last to move their equipment over to the new pole is responsible for removing the (old) pole.”

But, Siburkis said the pole removal agreement can be complicated because there is no timeline the telecommunications companies are required to follow when removing the old infrastructure.

Siburkis said FirstEnergy does everything it can to complete the transfer of equipment from the old utility pole to the new, but after that, it’s “really out of our control.”

“The rub is, and they’ll never admit this, (the telecommunications companies) don’t want to pull the pole because there’s nothing in it for them,” said Greathouse, who worked for Ohio Edison for 30 years. “It’s an expense and their service isn’t interrupted.”

At a recent city council caucus meeting, Safety / Service Director Eddie Colbert said over the past several weeks, there has been a company rewiring connection wires to the broken utility poles instead of to the newly installed poles.

“That is totally unacceptable,” he said.

On Tuesday, the public utilities committee is having a meeting and requests representatives from Ohio Edison, Brite Speed and Spectrum be in attendance.

Greathouse said discussions between the committee members and the companies will start out friendly and he hopes to get the double utility pole problem “taken care of.”

He said if the city cannot get a commitment from the companies to get the two pole conditions addressed in a “reasonable amount of time,” then the city will consider legislation that could potentially institute a fine.

“We’re going to have to look at legislation that says, you know what, you’ve got 90 days to get these things out or else it’s a $100 fine per month,” Greathouse said.

Another course of action regarding the long broken poles could be to present the issue to the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio.

“There have been some instances across Ohio where it’s been years,” Siburkis said. “But at that time, I know that municipalities often will get the PUCO involved or file a complaint with the PUCO … because it becomes just a nuisance or eyesore in the community.”

Brittany Waugaman, a spokesperson with PUCO, said when a complaint is filed regarding the safety of a utility pole, the commission can investigate the situation.

“If the poles or lines belong to a utility we regulate and the investigation finds a safety issue, we can order repairs to be made,” Waugaman said.

On the utility poles in Warren, Greathouse said Ohio Edison and Brite Speed are public utilities, while Spectrum is not.