Reader's Write: Investigate approval for PSEG poles

It’s shocking that seemingly unknown to the entire North Shore public, someone – or a group of someones – signed off on a massive multimillion-dollar plan for PSEG Long Island (that stands for Public Service Electric & Gas) to replace old telephone poles with monstrous 65-70-foot telephone poles – complete with numerous, menacing-looking metal coils – up and down Northern Boulevard and in several North Shore communities.

The failure to inform the community is especially mystifying when you consider that it took the Great Neck Library almost 20 years – and several boards-of-directors – of intensive investigations, forums, discussions, budget disputes, environmental considerations, and public input to arrive at a plan to reconfigure the main library’s design, fix the problems of aging infrastructure, and finance the entire project.

And yet we learned two weeks ago from the Great Neck News that everyone in elected office who has sworn an oath to serve the needs of our community didn’t know nuthin’ about PSEG’s clearly fishy plan.

Newly-elected North Hempstead Supervisor Judy Bosworth promised to find out who, exactly, put this plan in place. I would urge her to make public the answers she receives after asking the following questions:

When did any and all meetings take place to enact this plan? Dates, please.

Who was present at these meetings? – Names please, and titles.

Were there any finances involved in these meetings…any quid pro quos?

What was the absolute deciding factor in giving the go-ahead for this plan?

Which actual human being signed the final go-ahead? Name, please.

Was this plan dictated by the White House? If so, details please.

Who exactly decided not to make this plan known to the public? Name, please.

Was the wood on these poles treated with the extremely toxic preservative, Penta?

Was the issue of electromagnetic fields discussed, and the widely held belief that they are closely linked to numerous grave health problems like birth abnormalities, central nervous center disorders, learning disabilities, and cancer, especially in children?

Was there any discussion about how many more electromagnetic waves are emitted from the larger poles than the older, smaller poles?

Was there any discussion of the 33,000 volts the poles are capable of carrying and what dangers they might pose? In the U.S. 2005 National Electrical Code, high voltage is any voltage over 600 volts, and requires particular safety requirements and procedures.

Are there written guidelines that spell out the new safety procedures for the new poles that emit not 600 but up to 33,000 volts?

Was it considered that the public considers the new poles grotesque eyesores?

Was there any discussion of burying the wires?

PSEG, along with still-unknown powers-that-be engaged in what appears to be an egregious abuse of power, shoving through a plan that if put to a vote would have been soundly rejected by the public.

The same abuse of power is happening in the Hamptons.

But those living in Amagansett and surrounding towns must have had more warning then we North Shore residents had because they presented 2,500 signatures against the plan to PSEG and vowed to continue to fight against ever having these sky-high and potentially dangerous so-called hurricane-resistant poles installed on their turf.

In fact, the town of East Hampton issued a stop-work order that PSEG is contesting.

So what are our options? Simply to keep the pressure on all of our elected representatives on the North Shore by calling or e-mailing every day to (1) demand that they issue a stop-work order and (2) to ask the questions I’ve asked in this letter and then to demand answers! Here is their contact info:

North Hempstead Town Supervisor Judy Bosworth

516-869-6311

BosworthJ@northhempsteadny.gov

Councilwoman Viviana Russell

516- 869-7701

russellv@northhempsteadny.gov

Councilman Peter Zuckerman

516-869-7702

zuckermanp@northhempsteadny.gov

Councilman Angelo Ferrara

516- 869-7703

ferraraa@northhempsteadny.gov