Town Too Short?

Tassanoxie suffers from a shortness problem that wasn’t apparent until this summer. That’s when the power company started installing really, really tall cement utility poles all around town. I’m talking taller than 50 year old trees. Taller than any building in Tassanoxie. Reaching into the stratosphere tall. 

Poles that probably fit in and look right short in say, Dubai, home to the tallest building in the world. But truth is, these poles don’t look so good in little ole Tassanoxie.

For folks who don’t live in a small town, there is a dearth of tall buildings. We got three, maybe four floors in some medical buildings and two motels, but that’s about it. This shortness issue doesn’t give the elevator repairman much work here, what so few elevators in town.

But no one even knew we had a shortness problem until the power company decided to install these poles. I’m sure some big city fella thought these gigantic poles would get the job done. I doubt he once wondered what they would look like lining our streets.

These poles sort of stick up like so many huge sticks. And like sticks, some of them aren’t straight and sort of lean one way or another. I saw one of the worker bees standing at the bottom of one and was amazed at how small it made him and the truck parked next to it look. 

I can’t think of any way to make these behemoths look good. Even the tallest trees along the streets barely hit them midway. Fact is, they are plum ugly. So ugly, they make the cell phone towers look good.

There are those in town who would say these utility poles are a sign of progress. They may represent progress, but I think progress can be packaged for the size of the town. Rather than planting a forest of gigantic utility poles, I think the power company could have installed underground cable. It works well in a lot of subdivisions around town, so why wouldn’t it work down the streets heading into town? I mean, if you saw how much work it took to install one of these giant poles, the cost of digging up the street couldn’t be that much  more.

Being the power company, they didn’t bother to ask anyone. Once they got that utility right of way all those years ago, it gave them a swelled head. They just do what they want and don’t worry about it. And with all the electronic devices and constant use of electricity, maybe they’re right. After all, with folks busy talking on their phones or playing games on some device, they don’t look up often enough to notice giant eyesores along the road.

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