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Conn. city will move power lines that blocked fire trucks, ambulances

Copyright 2006 The Hartford Courant Company

By ARIELLE LEVIN BECKER
Hartford Courant (Connecticut)

OLD SAYBROOK, Conn — It didn’t take doctored photographs to show the dangers of the power lines hanging in front of the Old Saybrook Fire Department, Fire Marshal Donn Dobson joked.

Nature illustrated the point for him.

For years, officials had been concerned about the power lines, and had been formulating plans to move them to the other side of Main Street. Then, just days after Dobson and town officials discussed the plans in early April, a snowstorm knocked a power line down in front of the fire station. The low-hanging wire meant that ambulances and firetrucks couldn’t get out of the building, rendering the emergency fleet useless on that snowy day.

“If they can’t get out, it doesn’t count,” First Selectman Michael Pace said.

But that risk should soon become a thing of the past, with plans moving forward to relocate the cable, telephone and electrical wires to the other side of Main Street.

Work is expected to begin sometime this month and will last several months, Dobson said. When finished, the poles and wires between Town Hall and the Kirkland House will be relocated to the other side of the street.

Arrangements have already been made with SBC and Northeast Utilities for the move, and the town is now working with Comcast to coordinate moving the cable wires.

The whole move is estimated to cost about $75,000. Nearly all the money has already been allocated for the project, Pace said.