Unburied cable in your yard? Tell the City
By Randy Bell
After complaints from Clintonians about utility work that was never completed, the City is getting involved to try to resolve those issues. It recently posted a message on Facebook asking residents to email their addresses to Public Works Director Phillip Lilley if there’s been an unburied cable on their property for more than two months or if sod work is needed from Atmos. He can be reached at PLilley@ClintonMS.org.
Lilley says various companies have installed new cable connections or repaired existing cables across Clinton.
“They’re coming in and putting those temporary lines down and leaving them,” says Lilley. He says contractors responsible for burying the cables haven’t shown up to finish the job.
“I’m assuming that [the work order] is just not making it to the right hands,” Lilley says, noting that the cables stretched out across yards are unsightly and create certain hazards. His message to the cable companies and their contractors: “Take care of my city like you would your own.”
Lilley says, “to be fair,” he’s focusing on cables that’ve been unburied for more than two months, because he realizes there’s paperwork involved between the companies and the contractors, and that takes time.
“Anything past two months, that’s what I want to see in my email,” he says. “Pictures do help.”
One north Clinton neighborhood dealt with this issue for almost a year. After Comcast repaired its underground cable serving customers on Pinehaven Place, a temporary line across four yards became a nuisance during lawn mowing season, getting accidentally cut at least three times.
One resident, David Mitchell, vented his frustration by draping the line across a sign he posted in his yard, reading, “Comcast, Bury Your Cable!!” The sign also noted that the cable had been unburied since June of 2023.
Comcast left a cable unburied and lying across four yards on Pinehaven Place from June of 2023 to late last month, getting in the way of lawn care and grass cutting activities by the residents. Homeowner David Mitchell, who eventually buried the line on his property himself, fashioned this sign after repeated calls to Comcast did not get a response.
“I am very disappointed with Comcast’s total lack of response to my numerous phone calls requesting that this cable be buried,” Mitchell says. Tired of waiting any longer, his son recently used a spade to dig a trench across the yard to bury the cable, which lay exposed across three other yards until Comcast showed up late last month.
Lilley says he’s being diplomatic but insistent in dealing with the cable companies and their contractors, telling them he expects results.
“‘Give me a plan on how y’all are going to get it taken care of,’” he’s telling them. “And, if I can’t get it there, then we’ll just go higher up.”
The City is also addressing another utility-related issue. Lilley says recent efforts by Atmos Energy contractors to find gas leaks in Clinton have resulted in the sod being disturbed in some yards.
“As those contractors are trying to hurry up and finish their jobs, they may not be calling in those addresses to Atmos for their landscaping team to come back and restore the property,” he says. And he’s asking to be emailed those locations, as well.
