Market Street incident temporarily knocks out phones at Mt. Vernon City Hall, brings down poles

By: 
Steve Chapman

The phones at Mt. Vernon City Hall were down temporarily due to an incident on Market Street on Thursday, Oct. 3.
The problem occurred when a driver hauling a bulldozer for a contractor hooked a phone line on the bulldozer he was hauling. No one was reported hurt in the incident, but four phone poles and a utility pole were knocked down. Phones at City Hall were offline until 11 p.m. that night. It was not immediately clear if the crash affected any other building besides City Hall.
City Administrator Max Springer, who reported on the issue to the Mt. Vernon Board of Aldermen during their meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 8, said while it was “quite a mess,” the city was actually fortunate. He said a phone company representative that he spoke with said that, under different circumstances, the entire city’s phone system could have gone down.
“He said if those had been brand-new poles, we would have lost that fiber, and all of Mt. Vernon, 911 and everything, would have gone dark,” Springer said.
“So, thank goodness for old poles,” joked Mayor David Eden, prompting laughter from the audience.
Springer also said the phone wire hit the side of the city hall building with a great deal of force during the fall.
“We thought somebody hit the side of the building,” he said.
Springer told the board that the contractor’s insurance is paying for all damages.

Category:

Lawrence County Record

312 S. Hickory St.
Mt. Vernon, MO, 65712
www.lawrencecountyrecord.com

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