Pittsfield Councilor Demands Legible Maps from Project Applicants
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — One city councilor has a clear message for project applicants: "Make sure I can read your map."
Councilor at Large Earl Persip III was the lone vote in opposition to utility pole petitions from Eversource and Verizon New England on Tuesday night. The companies plan to install one new pole, relocate two existing poles, and set two anchor poles on Peck's Road for the Onota Brook bridge replacement.
The bridge was closed to traffic last month because of rapid deterioration and awaits a full reconstruction.
"I can't read the map. I don't know where the pole is going. I've said it a billion times. I say we table this until we get a map," he said.
"I can't approve anything that I can't see. I don't know where the pole is going, no one can show me where the poles are going, so I'm voting no. I've said this a zillion times to many, many people, many, many different organizations. If we can't read maps, how do we approve anything?"
Two maps were provided in the packet: one with an illegible outline of the intersection of Onota Street and Peck's Road with markers for the pole and another with a legible outline of the area. They are just drawings of the road and not an aerial photographic view.
Commissioner of Public Services and Utilities Ricardo Morales confirmed that the first provided image was illegible and that a second map was provided with the locations of the poles, street names, and the bridge location.
"This is an important project for us to complete in the process of moving these poles for the removal and then rebuilding of Peck's Road bridge," he said.
"It has taken a long time for this to be coordinated and that's why there's been a request to not push this further. It is a humble request from from me."
He said he understands that there have been difficult-to-read maps and drawings in the past but he considered this legible.
Persip pointed out that he and Morales have had this conversation.
"If this is so important, why isn't the due diligence done to make sure we have the information?" he said.
"We've been doing this map thing for at least six years now with Eversource, with Verizon. It's not hard, we compliment when they do them good and so I'm a no-vote. There's nothing you can do here today that's going to make me a yes."
Eversource representative Nicole Scarborough reported that this should not affect any residential driveways.
"We're not going to put anything right next to somebody's driveway so it can get hit," she said. "We want to protect the poles. We want to protect the circuits and the wires that we have up there so we don't have outages."
Morales reported that ground has not been broken on the project but will be soon. The nature of the bridge renovation has changed to a total reconstruction after the Massachusetts Department of Transportation that found six areas of deterioration.
"The project, though, has started with fabricating the precast and demolition proposal," he said.
"It has changed since we had to close the building the bridge fully and that at the moment, is slated for full demolition to start end of the month."
Ward 7 Councilor Rhonda Serre didn't want to further delay the project by delaying this approval, pointing out that the road is closed and traffic has been rerouted through residential neighborhoods that aren't used to it.
She agrees that maps are a frequent problem.
"And knowing that we are ready to move forward and this project will actually — shovels will start soon, I would request that we consider finding a way to approve this tonight so that a further delay in these poles doesn't impact the reconstruction of the Pecks Road bridge any further," she said.
Morales explained that this was always a part of the process but it is coming before the council "in a rushed fashion" because of how the bridge demolition has to occur.
"Before we do that, we need to move the crane to a location where wires are in the way," he said. "So we need to first eliminate and move those wires out of the way so it is definitely a last-minute change. We were always going to move these poles but not specifically at this point in time."
Ward 1 Councilor Kenneth Warren recognized that Persip has raised this issue many times to his agreement but in this case, he saw enough information to figure it out.
"Hopefully I'll never hear the word 'map' again," he joked.
Councilor at Large Kathy Amuso pointed out that "almost every time" Verizon is on the agenda, the council talks more about illegible maps.
"When you see these agenda items and the maps aren't clear, I'd like to you say, 'We're not even going to put it on the agenda,'" she said to President Peter White.
Persip said nobody could tell him what addresses the poles are going in front of and the council only has a general idea of the location.
"I've never been so irritated up here, I don't think," he said.
"This is such a small little thing. I agree, but it still baffles me that we are getting things like this presented to us."
Tags: bridge project, eversource, utility pole,
