LEXINGTON, Ky. (LEX18) — A damaged utility pole embedded in the sidewalk at West Third and North Upper streets in downtown Lexington has a nearby business owner demanding action before someone gets hurt.
Ed Harp, owner of Lexington Jewelers, said the Windstream pole has been deteriorating for at least three months and shows no signs of stopping.
"Over the last 3 months now, it's been at least 3 months, that pole has been shattered and broken, and it is getting worse, and I've watched it shift and continue to fall and continue to fall," Harp said.
Harp said the pole's collapse could knock out power to a wide stretch of downtown Lexington — and directly impact his business.
"It's too, it's across the street. There's, there will be no power here. It's going to affect my business in a very negative manner," Harp said.
He added that the consequences could go beyond a power outage.
"There have been multiple; this is bad. It's going to come down and hurt somebody, or at least turn off the downtown's electricity for a good period of time," Harp said.
Harp said he has contacted Kentucky Utilities multiple times and reached out to his district's city council member, hoping someone would take action. He eventually escalated his concerns to the mayor's office.
"Finally, it got to the point where I called the mayor's office, who literally told me. Call Kentucky utilities. Call somebody else. It's not our problem. It's gonna be the mayor's problem when the telephone pole comes down and hurts or kills somebody and turns off all of the power to half of downtown," Harp said.
While I was at the scene examining the damaged pole, two city workers arrived to photograph the damage and assess the situation firsthand. The city told Lex18 the pole belongs to Windstream and that the company plans to replace it either Thursday or next week.
Harp said the timeline is not soon enough.
"By the end of this day, is that telephone pole gonna be down? And how many times do I have to shout at the top of my lungs, hey, this is a problem," Harp said.
"Put a new telephone pole up, man, before it becomes a problem, a real problem," Harp said.
