Gardnerville's old power poles may come down next week, but members of the town's board expressed their doubts.
Town engineer Jennifer Roman reported that the poles should start coming down during the week of Sept. 10.
However, reports of the town's unsightly utility poles coming down have been premature in the past.
Sierra Pacific Power Co. has been cutting down their portion of the old wooden poles after utilities were moved underground, but two other utilities have been delaying their portion of the project.
"Sierra Pacific has really done a fine job," chairman Randy Slater said Tuesday. "This makes it look like we've dropped the ball. But we haven't."
Both Verizon and Charter lease space on the power poles from Sierra Pacific and the last utility to be on the poles has to pay for their removal.
An agreement has been reached with Verizon, according to Town Manager Jim Park, but no such agreement exists with Charter.
Park said that Charter is on a month-to-month franchise agreement with Douglas County while the cable company is negotiating a new agreement.
"It is embarrassing the way this has turned out," Slater said. "Unfortunately, there's not much we can do. But we haven't paid them."
