The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1910-04-28
TO ELIMINATE MANY POLES
Two Companies Will Merge Their In
terests on Many of the Streets of
the City and Take Down Many
Lines of Poles.

| The Kenosha Gas and Electric Com
pany started work this morning on a
plan for the complete rebuilding of the
system of that company in Kenosha
and before the end Of the present year
| it is expected that the entire system
will be rebuilt. The engineers of the
company have been at work in Keno
sha for some time and have about COM
pleted the plans for this work. With
the rebuilding the lines of the com
pany will be extended to every part of
Kenosha and many people who have
not had the privilege of using electric
light will be given the opportunity. The
plan of the company is to bring about
la general overhauling of all the over
head wire systems in Kenosha and to
this end an agreement is being sought
with the Kenosha Home Telephone
Company which will make it. possible
to unite the lines of the two companies
and in this manner reduce to a great
extent the number of pole systems on
the streets of Kenosha. A long time
agreement has been suggested between
the two companies by which it will
be possible for the Kenosha Gas and
Telephone Companies to use the same
set of poles and in this way eliminate
lot Of the poles which are now defacing
the streets Of the city. The engineers
of the two companies have worked out
a plan which it is expected will make
it possible for the gas company and
the telephone company to go hand in
hand in every part of the city and
while the people will be directly bene-
| flied by the elimination of one system
of poles the companies will be as great
| ly benefited by the reduction of the
expense of maintaining the overhead
systems. The telephone company has
reached the point where it is ready to
place nearly if not all of its lines in
Pcables and this will make it an easy
matter for the two companies to use
the same set of poles. The telephone
company will eliminate all danger
from this double use of the poles by
putting the wires of the electric com
pany on the top of the poles and the
cables of the telephone company far
enough below them to make the work
men of the telephone company safe
from possible accident.
"On some Of the streets. of the
city," said Manager Kimball of the
electric company on Thursday night,
cit will be possible for us to take
out whole lines of poles and there
will be two lines of poles only in dis
tricts where the traffic is unusually
heavy. We are planning to rebuild
the system in the best possible manner
and we feel that while this rebuilding
will greatly increase the efficiency of
our system it will also be a great help
in identifying Kenosha. We plan
ON the completion of the work during
the coming summer months and a larg-
er force Of men will be put to work
just as soon as the engineers have
worked out the complete plan for the
system
The Kenosha Electric Railway Com
pany has not been taken into. consid-
Grafton in this arrangement of the
overhead wire system Of the city and
it is openly said that the men who are
interested in the rebuilding feel con-
WINGED that the supreme court of the
state in ruling on the constitutionality
of the public utility act will close the
doors of Kenosha to this company.
Should the supreme court decide that
the Kenosha Electric Railway Com
pany has the right to work under the
alleged franchise granted by the city
council this viii of course bring back
the second system of poles in the city.