"We Didn't Intend To Actually Run A Utility Company." Actually, Mr. Perry, You Aren't!

During his DPW report at the April 2025 Common Council meeting, Superintendent Rob Perry whined about the responsibilities his department was now taking on after the city "purchased the streetlights from National Grid for $300,000 last May."  He went on:  "Obviously, we didn't intend to actually run a utility company of our own.  What we found out is that National Grid doesn't migrate the lights from the old poles to the new poles.  There's any number of issues that go on with the electrical services and the technology.  You know, we have a local electrician that basically we've dedicated to all thing streetlight."  Perry added that there was all sorts of inventory to purchase, from "cobra arms" right down to bolts.  "We don't have anything, because, quite frankly, in the city's history, we never had to deal with it before. So, this is a kind of a bottom-up approach.  But it is something we are working on a permanent solution for, and we should get all these streetlights up and running hopefully in the next couple of months."

Perry made it sound like the streetlight switchover was a complete surprise to him, even though the change has been in the works for at least 6 years and there is no way he was not aware of what was to come.  Yet he whined as if he never saw it coming.  He might as well have said, "I didn't know we would be dealing with all this, having to pay for all this and spending time doing this.  I didn't ask for this."  It's almost like he would rather not deal with streetlights (can you blame him?).  But now he has no choice.  This is an added expense and more work for his crew, not to mention the electrician that the city has hired to do at least some of the streetlight work (notice how Perry said "we have" an electrician, not "we had to hire an electrician").

Perry's gist to the council was that any streetlights that weren't working in April would be fixed soon enough.  But what he conveniently failed to mention in any helpful detail was DPW's many new working LED streetlights (at the end of cobra arms) that are still hanging from old utility poles (some of them being ancient) standing next to brand new utility poles National Grid has put in the ground recently and continues to do to this day and will continue to do as long as wood ages.  As of this year, the City of Hudson is now intimately involved with the issue of double poles, another issue Perry failed to offer any details on, as he never has.  He can't avoid it now.  At least he shouldn't be avoiding it.

You see, until late last year, if National Grid set a new utility pole in the ground next to an old one of theirs, they transferred their power lines and the streetlight to the new pole. Not anymore. It is now up to the City of Hudson to remove a streetlight that is on an old pole and secure it to any new pole. We own the lights, we maintain them, we handle them -- National Grid no longer does. And if our DPW does not remove a streetlight from an old pole, the pole can never be removed from the ground to undo the double pole situation that the city should be trying to prevent. If Verizon and any other utilities transfer their lines off of the old pole onto the new pole (as they are supposed to do but often do not), the pole remains until DPW transfers the light (and the cobra arm) to the new pole. We are now part of the problem of double poles. This is an issue that Rob Perry would rather ignore, even though he is tied to it now.

For example, just this week, a contractor for National Grid set three new utility poles next to three quite old and feeble-looking poles in the 500 block of Washington Street.  When will DPW find the time to transfer the three streetlights that are still attached to those old poles?  How much time and money will it require?  Is this an expense that Rob Perry saw coming?  Will Rob Perry show the same urgency to transfer his streetlights that Verizon and others should be showing by transferring their equipment, lines, etc. (aka, facilities) so that the old poles can be removed from the ground?  Shouldn't that be the goal here, to get the old poles out of the ground as soon as possible, to make them go away before they fall over and cause more problems, even for DPW?  Or is DPW going to have the same shit poor, who-gives-a-crap attitude as Verizon and others with their facilities on old (double) poles all over town?  Is DPW part of the problem or part of the solution now that it is a player in the streetlight and double utility pole game?  

Time will tell, but so far it's not looking very promising.   Expect next year's DPW budget to increase (again), if only because of the responsibility Perry now has for every streetlight in town, including all the surprises that came along with that responsibility.  Of course, the city's purchase of the streetlights was supposed to save us money in the long term.

How long will it take DPW to transfer that 
light and arm to the new pole National 
Grid just put in the ground?  How much 
will it cost us?

New pole, new look (on Prospect)

Double pole on 5th, beginning last year.

Notice the flimsy wire between the tops 
of the two poles.  Notice the X on the old pole.
The taller one arrived this week.
Does Rob Perry even know it did?

A recent double pole addition to 5th Street

My guess is that it would take about two hours for DPW (or the hired "local electrician") to transfer a streetlight from one pole to another. At least one hour, for sure.  DPW has only one bucket truck, with one bucket, that can reach the lights.  Below are pictures, taken on June 3rd, of a DPW worker in a bucket fixing a streetlight on North 6th while his partner looks on below while also helping traffic to pass safely.  This was the first time I noticed DPW workers maintaining streetlights. 

I think it's a bit odd and suspicious that the two DPW workers who appear to have been assigned the task of maintaining streetlights are the only two Black laborers available in the department (the one other Black worker at DPW drives the garbage truck).  They didn't sign up for what is probably now the most dangerous work at DPW, did they?  Notice how the worker handling the light is not wearing gloves.  Did these two workers receive special training on how to handle the maintenance of streetlights while in the vicinity of high voltage power lines 50 feet above ground in a bucket?  Did their safety training make it clear that they should not wear gloves while working at or near the top of utility poles while maintaining streetlights with power lines full of electricity -- possibly 14,000 volts of it -- nearby?