Dangerous Power Pole? Problem Solved

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FORT WORTH (CBS11) - You could say that Michael Mackay had a rather harsh introduction to a power line hazard hanging out in his company's back yard.

"It didn't become an issue until I tripped over it and almost broke my neck," says Mackay, owner of a downtown Fort Worth advertising agency. "And I look up, and I see this pole wiggling. And if you tug on this just a little bit you see how easy it is to make that pole wiggle."

Mackay had tripped over a steel cable anchored in his company's back yard that appeared to be keeping the pole upright. After digging around a bit to determine who was responsible for the pole, he called Oncor. Someone arrived to check it out a few days later.

"He looked at it, and said `yeah, that's a problem: basically, the pole is broken at the base'."

But, upon closer inspection, the aging pole wasn't just cracked and broken.  It was downright rotten.

"I can feel inside this pole. It's hollow…it's all mush. That's all mush coming out of there… if this pole does down, there's a building right there. If it falls down, which way is it going to go? It's just a problem pole, it needs to be solved."

Keep in mind, that initial conversation with Oncor happened in July. After a worker tripped and fell over the cable again last week, Mackay reached out to Oncor again.

He tells CBS 11 that after negotiating a maze of telephone transfers, the staffer that he finally got on the line was pleasant. But, told him that Oncor must first get state approval to remove a pole that was still upright… and that the process was quite cumbersome. He was stunned that a dangerous power pole was not a priority, until it fell, possibly causing further damage. And that's not all.

"If there are other utilities attached to this, think of the inconvenience associated with that. I run an advertising agency, if my computers go down, because this power pole goes down, I'm out of business until that can get fixed."

Feeling frustrated and out of options, Mackay contacted CBS 11.  A couple of hours after we contacted Oncor, crews were on site beginning work to replace the rotten pole.

Oncor spokesperson Kris Spears told us that when the company was contacted in July, the pole was "not deemed to be hazardous at that time." However, Spears went on to say that the company responds anytime a customer expresses a safety concern and that action would have been taken on the next business day, which would coincidentally have been today. "Any time there's evidence of something being dangerous, we're going to take care of it," said Spears.

"Why wait until it's a crisis," asks Mackay, "a little due diligence, a little preventative maintenance."

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