Letters to the Editor
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climbing the utility pole is 'old hat'
most of the utility comapnies in America prefer to use so-called 'cherry picker' trucks: the linesman no longer needs to climb up the pole (which is an art form in itself), the linesman has a steady work platform with tools ready at hand and, on the whole, it is safer
utility linesmen (and lineswomen) have to work in all kind of weather (heat, cold, windstorms, icestorms, tornadoes....and in central Illinois, we get too much of almost every kind of weather; we have not yet gotten a hurricane, but if Louisiana ever sinks below the waves, then we just might get one of those also)
properly buried utility lines are usually safe from icestorms, tornadoes, blizzards and drunk drivers; properly buried utility lines have special 'heat sinks' installed so that the heat emitted from the lines do not melt the cable