'Putrid green' pole has resident seeing red

The Baltimore Sun

THE PROBLEM -- An old utility pole that doesn't appear to be used for anything stands in front of a house on Edmondson Avenue.

THE BACKSTORY -- Tracy D. Roy moved into her house about 10 years ago. Her yard is neatly trimmed with bushes along a walkway, and her grass is nicely mowed. Her part of Edmondson Avenue on the far western edge of the city is tucked away from the busy U.S. 40 commercial strip, near the Baltimore County line.

Roy says there is a "disgusting, rusted, putrid green metal pole" in front of her house. She said she has complained for years.

Roy said the city added insult to eyesore by attaching to the pole a sign that gives drivers a digital readout of how fast they are going (it wasn't working when Watchdog checked last week). Above that is a solar panel. Two wires go from the top of the pole across Edmondson Avenue to a wooden utility pole in the median.

Roy said she spent months caught between Baltimore City officials and Baltimore Gas and Electric Co., trying to figure out who owns the pole. She said BGE finally 'fessed up: It's BGE's pole No. 4727. Roy said she has complained to several 311 operators, a representative for the mayor's office, the city's Transportation Department and to BGE.

She said in an e-mail that BGE sent a technician out who "told me that BG&E; will not paint a pole and that I would just have to live with it." Roy said that the was "finally routed to the investigators department with BG&E.; After four sheets of copious notes and names, Watchdog is my last resort."

Linda Foy, a BGE spokeswoman, said the pole is a "guy pole" for tension wires to help support the wooden pole across the street. Foy said the metal pole is in a public right of way near the sidewalk. "It is actually serving a purpose," Foy said. "Guy poles and guy wires are not unusual. They exist throughout the service area."

Roy told Watchdog that she would like the pole removed but would accept a new paint job.

Foy had originally said the pole would be repainted this Sunday. She said yesterday it was repainted two days ago.

WHO CAN FIX THIS -- Foy would not identify a specific BGE official in charge of upkeep on poles and urged people with complaints to call the general line, 410-685-0123.

update

On June 5, Watchdog reported that the bus shelter on St. Paul Street near Penn Station was in disrepair. On Wednesday, Watchdog noticed the old shelter, nothing more than a metal frame, had been removed. On Friday, a crane was putting in a new shelter, complete with a glass roof.

But a few blocks to the south, also on St. Paul Street, a billboard that the city says has no permit was still up yesterday. A city attorney had given the owners until Friday to take it down. The attorney is off this week and other housing officials were not available to comment.

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