I Love Bird Houses (But Not on Co-op Poles)

I guess I am just tired today, and probably a little grouchy.  I have just finished sending out what seems like hundreds of letters, asking members to take their “stuff” off  Cooperative poles. 

Now let me ask you a question.  If your neighbor puts up a fence and pays for it, is it your right to start hanging things on it and putting up signs on it, or using it for target practice?  Even though it is “your” side of the fence, technically it is just the side you are looking at and doesn’t belong to you.

It’s the same way with Cooperative poles and meters.  Although the whole membership technically owns them, individuals can’t just start hanging, nailing, tying, tacking and fastening things to them.  One of our lineman sent me a picture the other day of a bag of salt tied to a meter.  First of all, it won’t work.  Secondly, the main thing you will accomplish with a bag of salt is to rust out your meter base.

Even your meter base pole that you install cannot become a “bulletin board.” 

Cooperative employees may have to climb that pole or lean a ladder up against it.  That pole must be 25 feet tall and have 5 feet concreted in the ground.  20 feet should be out of the ground and, if you have a mast head, it must be at eighteen inches from the top of the pole.  Wire up the pole must be in conduit.   Wire down the pole to an underground service must be in conduit and buried 18 inches deep. 

No SIGNS  allowed on any pole.  That means yard sales, advertisements, political, community or school events, weddings, directions and arrows . 

Please, Please, Please!!! No flags, bird houses, no gourds, rain gages,  cattle skulls or deer horns, no fodder shocks with bales of hay piled around and no big round bales of hay for winter feed.

Don’t tie your dog, goat, horse or 4-H calf to Cooperative poles and don’t let your horses and cattle scratch on guy wires (I know about this one, because ours did and we were embarrassed to have to call in an outage.)

Absolutely no satellite dishes and night lights!  Your satellite dish provider should (and does) know that satellite dishes are not allowed on utility poles.  Neither are personal night lights.  You must install your own pole or have a structure that you can attach to for  satellites and night lights.

  

And the Number One Rule breaker:  Don’t build walls around your meter and cause it to  be  inside your house or garage.  That meter must be accessible to Cooperative personnel 24/7, especially in an emergency.  Just because “the door is never locked, or you can just “ reach right here behind this cabinet, deep freezer or picture” is not accessible.  Inside the house also means inside the garage.  Our business is on the outside of your home or building and not inside.  If we find a meter inside a structure, it will have to be moved to the outside.

If you have questions about where a meter base should go, be sure and give us a call.  We will do our best to answer your questions or help you find the information you need.  But please remember,  putting things on utility poles violates the rules and regulations  of the Cooperative and many times, the National Electric Code and the National Electric Safety Code.   For the safety of you and your family and our employees, PLEASE KEEP EVERYTHING OFF OF THE POLES!!