Councilors raised a recent incident in Ward 7 during the Oct. 15 Public Utility & Public Works Committee meeting in which the top of a garbage truck snagged an overhead wire and left it hanging low from a house. Committee Chair Councilor Jesse Klingen described video of the incident and asked DPW to explore ways to prevent similar occurrences.

Klingen said the same truck route had passed the location for years without incident before the wire was snagged and that the incident left a cable "kinda really hanging low." He asked whether the city or utilities maintain a minimum clearance standard and whether the city can take steps such as excluding certain vehicles from specific streets.

DPW Commissioner Jill Lakeman said her "lights and lines" crew communicates regularly with Eversource and that staff would take the question back to that crew to evaluate how a citywide, methodical plan might work. "That's actually some food for thought. I'd like to kind of take that back to my lights and lines crew and kind of get their thoughts on that to see how would that be actually manageable and in a realistic and sustainable way that makes sense," Lakeman said.

Councilors and staff discussed enforcement limits for truck restrictions, use of signage, and whether mapping or app‑based routing could reduce heavy vehicles on narrow streets. The committee did not adopt a formal policy at the meeting; members asked staff to follow up with the lights‑and‑lines crew and with utility partners to identify practical mitigation steps and possible timelines for implementation.