WHEELING — Issues regarding old utility poles in the city of Wheeling have been up in the air for some time, but the matter is being addressed.

City Councilman Dave Palmer spoke out about the issue during the most recent meeting of Wheeling City Council, taking issue with the apparent lack of action from private utility companies to move lines from old poles to new poles that were installed over the past year.

“Recently Appalachian Power and AEP have put in some new poles, which is great,” Palmer said. “But as the process goes – they remove those lines and put their lines on the new poles. And then they cut the poles off. Then they send work orders to the utilities that are on there – which in this case would be Comcast and Frontier.”

Palmer noted that other utility lines are still in use on a number of the old poles, some of which the councilman indicated are no longer maintained by AEP.

“So we’re going on a one-year time frame now on some of these poles where Comcast and Frontier have basically refused to remove their lines off the poles and remove the poles,” he said. “It’s becoming a safety issue in some areas where the poles are leaning into the street. There’s a reason why AEP was gracious enough to replace the poles, because they needed to be replaced.”

According to Palmer, a number of his constituents have been complaining about the condition of the old utility poles.

“So we need to work on getting these other utilities to remove these,” Palmer said. “I don’t know what kind of action we can take as a city – if we have anything in ordinances that could try to encourage them. We have constituents who are calling these organizations – they are promising to show up and remove their stuff, and they’re not doing it.”

Palmer said AEP has been very responsive and has taken efforts to help expedite the process.

“I can’t say enough about AEP,” Palmer said. “They called them back and re-issue the work orders again. So I can’t say enough about their work. I would really appreciate it if we can do something to contact these utilities and try to get these poles removed. Because I’m sure that if it’s not happening in your neighborhood now, it’s going to be.”

Wheeling City Manager Robert Herron said the city has contracts with certain utility companies which regulate where lines and equipment can be placed in the city.

“We do have a franchise agreement with Comcast that does permit them to operate in the public right of way,” Herron said. “We certainly can take a look at that agreement – it’s probably 50 pages long – and see whether or not the issue is spoken to in the agreement.”

Herron said the city administration would have to research whether or not relevant stipulations exist in contracts with other utilities such as Frontier and Verizon.

In attempts seeking a response from utility companies that reportedly use the old poles, inquiries to Frontier went unanswered, but a spokeswoman from Comcast researched the matter, gathered information about the situation and reported that the company is addressing the switch to the new poles.

Spokeswoman Kristie Fox of Comcast said there were only about eight remaining poles in question in the Wheeling area that needed to be addressed.

“We have almost half of them complete, and the other half is in the process of being moved,” Fox said, noting that Comcast has been in communication not only with Assistant City Manager Bill Lanham and AEP regarding this issue, but also with the other utility companies, as well. “The lines go in order of the provider, and there is another provider above us. Once they move their lines, we can move ours.”

Officials noted that there were a lot of moving parts and variables associated with coordinating the relocation of utility lines, but it is getting done. Herron last week confirmed that progress was being made to get the issue resolved.

“Everything is already in the process of being resolved,” Fox said.