file photo by Boyd Loving
Size of utility poles shocks Ridgewood
MONDAY, JULY 15, 2013 Â Â LAST UPDATED: MONDAY JULY 15, 2013, 11:00 PM
BY CHRIS HARRIS
STAFF WRITER
THE RECORD
They tower over Hope Street and Spring Avenue, 65-foot-tall wooden utility poles that clear the treetops of Ridgewood, are built to withstand powerful storms, and can support wires that handle up to 69,000 volts — energy for an increasingly power-hungry public.
But the poles, there will be 78 of them in the village helping to connect high-voltage lines from a Fair Lawn substation with one in Paramus, have already drawn the ire of residents, who say Public Service Electric and Gas didn’t notify them about the work. Village officials on Monday asked the utility to stop installation until a public meeting could be held where residents can ask PSE&G representatives questions about the program.
In an email Monday afternoon, Mayor Paul Aronsohn instructed PSE&G “to halt all further work related to the installation of new, larger poles until such a meeting can occur and until the health and safety concerns expressed by me and several of our residents are addressed.” It is not the first time Ridgewood has objected to a PSE&G program. Officials also stopped work a couple of years ago — again to let residents ask questions — when the utility was installing 3-foot-by-5-foot solar panels on utility poles.
– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/news/Size_of_utility_poles_shock_Ridgewood.html#sthash.IiuSTje5.dpuf
No rationale explanation offered as to why they just didn’t use the existing PSEG right of way through Glen Rock and Ridgewood.
Here we go again….. We used to have telephone pole sitters in the news. Now the complaint seems to be another NIMBY topic to keep us in the news.
Relax, those house along that section will be worth more…. it’s like an involuntary taking. Lawyers will have a field day getting the price for their clients.
Does anyone have a list of where all the poles are being installed?
Paul Aronsohn made a grandstand move but in reality, he has little if any authority to order anyone to do anything. Remember he was going to ” hold PsEGs feet to the fire” after Sandy…ok well that didn’t happen. Keep grabbing those headlines Paul. Sooner or later, people will tally the non action that results. Maybe Sarracino can ask Christie to have the power company cease and desist.
WHERE are our public officials?? This has to be stopped by the residents themselves as these monstrosities are going up in the front yard? Outrageous.
I thought they were going underground with this stuff. I can’t understand how a 65′ high pole won’t be affected by storms.
I cannot understand how our public officials can complain about ‘height’ when they might possibly allow Valley to build their ‘height’….
Good point, #7. However, if you went to the PB meeting last night, I think, based on the questions asked by the board members, including the very “relevant” one asked by the mayor and followed up by two other members, regarding the bed count, that the board, along with a growing number of residents, are fed up with the whole process. Princeton paid a price for rejecting a hospital’s proposal? I was down there last month and the CBD looked crowded to me. Maybe the fact that they have a world class university on the main drag has something to do with it !