More Wrong In Port Than Utility Poles

Tilting at windmills, or utility poles, can be a worthwhile endeavor until it diverts attention from other important matters.
The article, “PSESG Electric Project Now Complete” (Port News, July 2-8) quoted the executive director of Residents for a More Beautiful Port Washington as saying that the new high poles should be taken down and that the utility should pay for their removal.
That’s not the way the real world of utility capital spending works, especially for projects two years in the planning and approved (or at least not disapproved) by the relevant regulatory agencies. If the wires are put underground the multi-million dollar expense will be added to our electric bills, along with the billions in outstanding costs from the defunct Shoreham nuclear plant that have been factored into our rates for the last 25 years or so.
Yet, there are many other areas of our community that are sorely in need of attention and repair.
Let’s start with the eyesore and health hazard at the corner of Main and Herbert, smack in the center of town across from the railroad station. Talk about visitors’ first impressions.
A fire gutted the building nearly a year and a half ago. After about a year of inactivity, repairs were begun but it does not appear that any there has been any work at the site for weeks. Has anyone in town government or any civic group inquired as to the status of that project?
The roads around Port are a disgrace. Yes, we had a hard winter, but there is no excuse for the potholes and chopped up pavement that are still with us as we go into August. Beacon Hill Road is a prime example, especially at the intersection with Port Boulevard.
The long-time boarded-up former grocery on the south side of Main Street really adds character to our business district, and the general upkeep of the Soundview Shopping Center is severely lacking.
Sometimes you have to come down from the lofty 80-foot heights and look around at ground level to see what is really going on.
—Samuel Glasser