[HISTORY: Adopted by the Board of Aldermen
(now City Council) of the City of Chicopee as Ch. 25 of the 1976 Code.
Amendments noted where applicable.]
GENERAL REFERENCES
Building construction — See Ch. 122.
An Inspector of Wires shall be appointed to supervise electric lines to carry electric light or power current in accordance with the provisions of MGL c. 166, § 32.
A.
Whenever the City Council is applied to for a location
of such lines, it shall, if it grants the same, first determine the
streets through which the lines shall run and shall then require the
company or persons so applying to furnish a plan of the streets so
designated therefor upon a scale of not less than 150 or more than
200 feet to the inch; and the City Council shall then determine and
specify on said plan where each pole may be located and shall cause
to be issued to the party applying therefor a certificate specifically
enumerating the streets where the lines may run and the location of
each pole thereon, as exhibited on said plan, the kind of poles, the
height at which all wires must be placed and the dimensions and location
of the underground conduit, if said lines or any part thereof shall
be laid underground. Said plan and a copy of said certificate shall
be filed in the office of the City Clerk, and the construction of
the line shall conform thereto in every particular, and any pole placed
otherwise than as therein designated shall forthwith be removed.
[Amended 9-1-2009]
B.
Any license granted hereunder shall be subject to
the right of the City, free of charge, to place its fire alarm, telegraph
or other electric wires upon the poles or through the conduit so licensed
to be maintained and to the right of the City to license the location
of lines by any other person or corporation upon said poles and through
said conduit upon payment to the owner thereof of a reasonable compensation
to be determined by the parties or, if they fail to agree, to be determined
by the Mayor. Whenever a location is granted upon poles already erected,
a plan of the streets so traversed need not be required.
A.
All corporations, companies and individuals licensed
to erect poles and fixtures and to maintain electric wires shall,
before proceeding to act under the license, give to the City an agreement,
in writing, satisfactory to the City Solicitor, that they will save
the City harmless from any and all claims for damages, costs, expenses,
charges or compensation for or on account of or in any way growing
out of the erection, maintenance or use of said poles, fixtures or
wires.
B.
Said agreement, after its approval by the City Solicitor,
shall be filed with the City Clerk, and no certificate of such license
shall be issued until said agreement is so filed.
Every such line of wire along or across streets,
ways or other public places shall be placed underground or at a height
not less than 20 feet from the ground, except under bridges upon suitable
poles or from building to building, except that such electrical conductors
and fixtures as may be required in the construction and operation
of electrical railways may not be less than 18 feet from the ground.
Every such line of wire shall be so constructed, placed and maintained
as not to interfere with any other line nor with the operation of
the fire alarm telegraph, and all unused lines of wire shall forthwith
be removed. Except for street railway purposes, no more than one line
of poles or one conduit shall be maintained in any street, and no
tree upon any street or other public place shall be cut or trimmed
to make room for such wires without the consent of the Superintendent
of Streets.
Every employee, official or agent of any telegraph,
telephone or electric company who desires access to any premises within
the City upon business of the company appertaining to the repairing
or laying of lines over, through or along said premises shall be furnished
by the company with a certificate of his authority to act therefor
and shall not enter said premises without first exhibiting such certificate
to the owner or occupant thereof and receiving permission so to enter.
[Amended 9-1-2009]
The poles shall be kept well painted, of a uniform
color and in good condition to the satisfaction of the Superintendent
of Streets and of the Mayor; and the location of any poles, when once
erected, shall not be changed without the consent of the City Council.
The City shall have the exclusive use of the one crossbar and the
top of each pole free of cost for the purpose of placing wires thereon,
and said crossbar shall be well-braced, not less than five feet long
and shall be placed not less than three feet from the crossbar next
to it.
