Framingham task force reviews pole inventory, transfer delays and contractor cleanup

Framingham City and utility representatives on April 17 reviewed the town’s pole inventory and discussed barriers to moving overhead wires and removing older poles, including third-party attachments, state permitting and inconsistent contractor cleanup.

Task force members opened with an “engines” report showing multiple categories of attachments. Ellen Cummings, Verizon State Government Affairs, read counts in the meeting: “Eversource has a hundred and 5. Fiber town fiber… Fire alarms are 11… CATV… that's 38, and Verizon is 23,” and noted the total was “just south of 300.”

The counts set off a discussion of which attachments utilities can move. Peter Bowman, an Eversource representative, said Eversource will prioritize the 105 items in its database and investigate a submitted “hot list” of poles flagged by the task force, saying he would “go back and… make some progress so others can do their transfers.”

Representatives from Comcast described changes to their internal process. Manuel “Manny” Furtado said Comcast centralized its pole-transfer program statewide on March 31 and assigned a single coordinator for Massachusetts transfers: “We now manage all the pole transfers for Comcast for all basically, everything in Massachusetts,” he said, and offered to provide the new coordinator’s contact information to the group.

Furtado and Comcast staff explained why the counts in the engines report do not always match field conditions: some poles that appear available are controlled by other companies that register differently in the database, notably a company the group identified as Astound. Furtado said several contractors are authorized to work for Astound and that Comcast is coordinating with Dennis Hayes at Astound so crews can complete joint transfers rather than returning incomplete job requests.

The group also flagged two poles that are on state roads. A Comcast representative said work on state roads requires a state highway permit from the Department of Transportation and that “it’s a 6 month process” to schedule those transfers — a timeline that the panel indicated can delay consolidated transfer work until multiple permits can be submitted together.

City staff and the Framingham Fire Department discussed attachments labeled as “fire alarms.” Mike Tesino, chief operating officer for the city of Framingham, and Chief Dutcher said the town transferred its fire alarm division to the Department of Public Works in February 2018 and that DPW now handles communication, lighting and signals. Dutcher said he did not have direct knowledge of the individual fire-alarm attachments and identified Pat Keith as the DPW division director who would handle follow-up.

Task force members raised workmanship and safety concerns after recent pole work. Novell (meeting organizer) and other members described poles where hardware, nuts and bolts or other parts were left on sidewalks. Peter Bowman and Comcast representatives asked members to photograph any debris and send those photos to the group; Bowman said Eversource would investigate and “send someone out to see” if Eversource crews were responsible. Furtado said Comcast now requires contractors to take before-and-after photos and that the company can withhold payment when work fails quality checks.

Panel members asked for ongoing status reports. Novell asked for updates every 30–45 days on the task force’s outstanding “dirty dozen” list and other items; Bowman agreed to check on the list Novell had previously submitted and to provide periodic status updates.

Before adjourning, the task force approved meeting minutes by voice vote (2–0) and then voted to adjourn (2–0).