Outages, letters, action

South end to get a trimming around electrical wires

After a couple of insightful and amusing letters to the YS News by Mark Sirkin concerning our recent rash of power outages, I was prompted to chip in my own two-cents, especially as it applied to the south end of town where I live. A day or two after publication of my letter I was visited by Kelley Fox. Kelley, who used to coach my stepson's soccer team, is the Superintendent of Water and Electric in the village. He came to check out some low-hanging wires I had mentioned in my letter.

As it turned out all of those wires were either the responsibility of Time Warner Cable or the telephone company. The village electric wires, running through that same part of our backyard, were safely in place a good thirty feet above ground. But in the process of gazing upward in a light rain at the edge of our property, Kelley voiced his frustration with the south end of town and its plentiful greenery.

According to Fox, it is the trees that cause the frequent electrical outages in my neighborhood. It has been four years since the south end had its trees trimmed back from the electrical wires, and even back then, in Kelley's opinion, the job wasn't sufficient, because residents opposed a more severe trimming that he felt was necessary. Fox has been campaigning with the Village Manager to do just that on this go around and, according to an article in the News this week, village council has agreed and the work will soon begin.

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