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Knox County advances resolution and first-reading ordinance to clear redundant and hazardous utility poles
Summary
After months of complaints and a presentation documenting double and abandoned poles, the commission voted to move forward a resolution to coordinate quarterly with utilities and advanced an ordinance (first reading) to require prompt removal of poles posing imminent safety hazards.
Knox County commissioners on Monday advanced a two-track approach to clear redundant, damaged and abandoned utility poles from county rights-of-way, voting to move forward a nonbinding resolution that will establish quarterly coordination with pole owners and passing an ordinance on first reading that targets immediate public-safety hazards.
Commissioner Jay, who led the proposal, said the county had amassed photographic and field evidence across districts showing double poles and damaged poles left in the right-of-way after power lines were transferred to new poles. "We have 2,955 poles in the engine system awaiting telecom transfer and removal," Jay said, urging the commission to press attachers and pole owners to finish transfers and remove obsolete poles.
The nut of the effort is a split strategy: the resolution will create a forum for quarterly meetings and a shared factual inventory so county engineering staff and utilities can…
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