Senate Bill No. 726

(By Senators McKenzie and Oliverio)

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[Introduced February 19, 2007; referred to the Committee on the Judiciary.]

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A BILL to amend the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, by adding thereto a new section, designated §24-3-1c, relating to removal of utility poles; requiring removal of a previous or former utility pole within ninety days of installing a new utility pole; and providing penalties.

Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, be amended by adding thereto a new section, designated §24-3-1c, to read as follows:
ARTICLE 3. DUTIES AND PRIVILEGES OF PUBLIC UTILITIES SUBJECT TO REGULATIONS OF COMMISSION.

§24-3-1c. Utility pole removal; penalty.

Notwithstanding any provision of this code to the contrary, every public utility subject to this chapter
shall within ninety days of installing a new utility pole remove the previous or former utility pole. For a violation of this section, a public utility shall be fined five hundred dollars. If the public utility does not replace the previous or former utility pole within one hundred twenty days from installing a new utility pole, then the public utility shall be fined an additional one thousand dollars, and for each ninety days after the one hundred twenty days, the public utility shall be fined another one thousand dollars.



NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to require public utilities to remove a previous or former utility pole within ninety days of installing a new utility pole; and providing penalties.

This section is new; therefore, strike-throughs and underscoring have been omitted.