Kern County Municipal Code Ch. 12.20 Telephone Poles on Highways

All telegraph, telephone and electric power corporations, and other persons which or who have been granted the right to construct lines of telegraph, telephone, trolley and other electric power wires along, upon and across any public road or highway in the county, outside of the limits of any incorporated city or town, may erect poles or posts for supporting the insulators, wires and other necessary fixtures of such lines, in such manner and at such points as do not incommode the public in the ordinary use of such roads or highways.

(Prior code § 2630)

Such wires along such roads and highways shall be suspended not less than twenty-five (25) feet in height on posts or poles, and such wires across roads or highways shall be suspended at least eighteen (18) feet above the road or highway, or higher if required by public utilities commission regulations.

(Prior code § 2631)

Whenever any person wishes to remove any building or other structure from one place in the county to another, over any road or highway thereof above which telegraph, telephone or trolley or other electric power wires are suspended, and such wires are not suspended at a sufficient height above the road or highway to allow the passage of such building or other structure along or across the road or highway, and whenever it is necessary to remove any of the poles upon or from which such wires are suspended, or to remove or cut any line wires, guy or anchor wires or anchor posts to allow the passage of the building or other structure along or across the road or highway, such person shall give reasonable notice to the corporation or person controlling and operating such wires, poles, or posts of his desire to have the wires cut, or the poles or posts removed, so as to permit the passage of the building or other structure along or across the road or highway, and shall deposit with such person, or managing agent, such sum as the corporation, person or managing agent estimates to be the expenses and damage incident to the cutting of such wires or removal of such poles or posts and restoring the wires, poles and posts to their former condition after the passage of the building or other structure; and upon making such request and such deposit, the corporation, person or managing agent controlling and operating the wires shall fix and designate a reasonable time when he will cut such wires, or remove the poles or posts, and allow the passage of the building or other structure; and such person shall, at the time so fixed and designated, remove the building or other structure along or across the road or highway, expeditiously, so as to occasion the least delay and inconvenience in the use of such wires.

(Prior code § 2632)

The person or corporation controlling and operating such wires shall be entitled to payment from the person removing such building or other structure of the expense and damage incident to the cutting of such wires and removing such poles and posts and restoring them to their former condition, after the passage of such building or other structure along or across such road or highway; and if such expense and damage is a greater amount than the deposit made as aforesaid, the person removing such building or other structure shall pay to the person or corporation controlling and operating such wires such additional expense and damage; and if such expense and damage is of less amount than the deposit made as aforesaid, the person or corporation controlling and operating such wires shall return to the person removing the building or other structure the balance of such deposit remaining after paying the expense and damage incident to cutting the wires and removing the poles and posts and restoring the same to their former condition.

(Prior code § 2633)

No person engaged in moving buildings or structures and no person whomsoever, except those operating and controlling the same, shall cut or otherwise interfere with any telegraph, telephone, trolley or other electric wires, or the poles, cross arms, insulators, guys or anchor wires, or anchor posts thereof. Any violation of this provision is an infraction.

(Prior code § 2634)

A. Any person who injures or destroys, through want of proper care, any necessary or useful fixtures of any telegraph, telephone or electric power corporation, or person, is liable to such corporation or person for all damages sustained thereby.

B. Any person who willingly and maliciously does any injury to any telegraph, telephone or electric power property mentioned in prior sections of this chapter is liable to the corporation or person owning, operating or controlling the same for one hundred (100) times the amount of actual damages sustained thereby, to be recovered in any court of competent jurisdiction.

(Prior code §§ 2635, 2636)

Any person, firm or corporation placing or maintaining any pole, polelines, pipe, pipeline, railroad track or other structures or fixtures upon any county highway, whether under a franchise or otherwise, shall move the same at his own cost and expense to such different location in the highway as is specified in a written demand by the director having charge of the district in which the same is located, whenever necessary to ensure the safety of the traveling public or to permit the improvement of the highway; provided that no such change of location shall be required for temporary purposes.

(Prior code § 2637)

The director of roads for the county shall specify in a written demand to the person placing or maintaining such pole, poleline, pipe, pipeline, railroad track or other such structure or fixture a reasonable time within which the work of relocation must be commenced, and such person must commence such relocation within the time specified in the demand and thereafter diligently prosecute the same to completion.

(Ord. G-6345 § 63, 1996: Ord. G-5885 § 59, 1993: prior code § 2638)

In case such person fails to remove any structure herein required to be removed within the time specified, it shall constitute an encroachment on the road and a public nuisance.

(Prior code § 2639)

The director of roads of the county shall maintain an action in any court of competent jurisdiction in the name of the county to abate the encroachment as a nuisance. If a judgment is recovered in favor of the county, he may, in addition to having the nuisance abated, recover a penalty of ten dollars ($10.00) for each day such nuisance remains after service of notice to remove, and also the costs in the action.

(Ord. G-6345 § 64, 1996: Ord. G-5885 § 60, 1993: prior code § 2640)

The director of roads for the county shall pay all penalties recovered into the county road fund of his district.

(Ord. G-6345 § 65, 1996: Ord. G-5885 § 61, 1993: prior code § 2641)