You may be able to see the wires hanging down the pole. I had seen a couple fellas in a pickup on Friday messing around with the wires, but figured they knew what they were doing. But when I saw that wire nearly touching the guide wire - which is just bare metal and an excellent conductor - I decided to call Oncor and let them decide if it was safe.
Then I wandered down to 7235 Clemson to see if they'd done a better job of terminating the electricity and found this:
It's harder to see, but look about the center of the photo and you'll see a bunch of wires taped to the limb of the tree. So, I called Oncor again, and they said they'd notify the guy they just sent to look at Rockhurst. I was there when he showed up a few minutes later and lo and behold, it turns out those guys I saw on Friday really DIDN'T know what they were doing. They just cut the wires with the power on, according to the Oncor representative.
But he said they won't do it too many more times, because one of these times they're going to end up dead...
This is The Beginning, folks. A builder trying to save a few bucks by having a handyman cut power to the property instead of doing what he's supposed to do and calling Oncor for a disconnect. So keep your eyes on these job sites and when you see something that doesn't look right. And don't assume they're doing it right. Ask questions of the people on the job site, or call 311, or Oncor, or Atmos; whoever can help.
As a result of this, Oncor Damage Prevention will be calling Blanchard - the owner - and Ramer Concrete - the company performing the demolition on Clemson, and give them a "stern talking to".
Let's hope this is the last blog piece about problems on these job sites.
