The Port Washington North Board of Trustees approved a law Wednesday requiring that double utility poles be removed in a timely manner on the village’s right-of-way.
“The [cable and utility companies] need to come to us in a timely matter or they’ll see us in court,” Mayor Bob Weitzner at the board’s regularly scheduled meeting.
The law was spurred by several utility poles on the south side of Cow Neck Road, stretching from Bay Drive to Port Drive. The wires that connect the poles are often owned by several separate utility companies, each of which is responsible for moving their own wires.
Once one utility company transfers its wire from the old pole to the new one, the next utility company will have 30 days to move theirs or face punishment from the village.
The last utility to remove wires from the old pole — in Port Washington North’s case, that company is Verizon — then has 30 days to remove the older pole.
Weitzner described the old poles as “unsightly.” The law is almost identical to one on the books in the Town of North Hempstead.
Another proposed law, which would change permitted land uses in a section of the village, was tabled until the next meeting.
In the treasurer’s report, Weitzner went over the village’s balance sheet, where an accident led to $7,300 in unforeseen costs.
“One thing that hit us pretty good was, due to an injury in the village that occurred a year or so ago, the worker’s compensation company did raise our rates fairly significantly,” he said.
He said the village’s rates were “ridiculously low” beforehand because Port North had not had an accident in ten years.
In the public works report, it was announced that the village had obtained a 20-foot trailer near the bay walk that would be used to store benches, rocking chairs and other village items.
