I come home from work and there’s about twenty of those little flags stuck in my yard, the ones power companies use to mark off places where they need to dig.
They’re not just along the property line. We have oleanders and silverthornes in our front yard by the road, but there’s a gap because one of the silverthornes died and we haven’t replaced it yet. The flags go between the bushes in the front yard, marching toward the house. They are not parallel to our property line, they are stuck right in the middle of the yard!
Ivylad was home all day, but no one knocked on our door to ask permission to spray paint the grass and stick the flags in the ground. Ivylad called town hall, who knew nothing about it, and warned us against pulling the flags up. Apparently, when “whoever” comes to dig, if the flags aren’t there and there’s damage, we’re liable for repair.
I was quite indignant, so I called our mayor (I love living in a small town) and he said it was probably a utility company marking off places where they need to dig. Excuse me, but they are NOT digging in the middle of my yard or halfway up the driveway. I am quite incensed about this.
I called the phone company, who told me to look in the front of my phone book. There’s a number “Call Before You Dig” and these are the folks that apparently mark off where digging needs to be done. Of course, they are closed until Monday.
Questions…what are my rights here? We need to cut the grass, and we can’t do that with all these little flags stuck in the yard. Can I deny permission to “whoever” when they come to dig? (I don’t think this is someone’s idea of a prank, unless they did my next door neighbor’s yard too. They have a bunch of flags stuck in the middle of their yard as well.)
I am somewhat upset about this. Someone trespassed on my property and spray painted the yard and stuck a bunch of flags into the ground. And there’s no one I can vent to until Monday. Grrr…
I reached him at home, and he was very pleasant and helpful. He said the cable company laid a cable across his front yard three weeks ago and it still hasn’t been buried.
I don’t think so. Our phone box is on the side of the house, but we have Vonage, so we’re not hooked up to the local phone company. I don’t know where the cable lines are buried, since we switched from Dish to cable about two years ago.
Just to give you my latest experience with this, I wanted to plant a tree in my yard, and did the “call this number before you dig” thing, because I thought it was the right thing to do.
Now, no one in my neighborhood has ever called as far as I can tell, unless they are getting a swimming pool or some sort of major addition. But, I do as they say. I was home, and as you mentioned, no knock at the door, no nothing. I have 3 different color flags all over my yard, and paint arrows everywhere. (three different colors, no less)
This wouldn’t piss me off as much as it has except for the fact that I explicitly told the lady on the phone that I did not want paint on my yard. Flags were fine, but no paint. She said no problem. Yeah, right. She also said that if I don’t plant within a week, I have to call these bozos again! Why? She couldn’t answer that one. I guess the chances that these brain surgeons won’t have a lawn to paint one day this summer isn’t worth the risk. I think it was very rude that they didn’t at least ring the bell. If I’m not home, fine. But I was there. I don’t see the need for paint AND flags. Bastards.
HA! I know where the plants are going, I won’t be hitting anything, and if they can’t follow directions, I guess I can’t either. So if the plants don’t get in this week, I’ll risk it. :rolleyes: What a bunch of boneheads.
As far as digging on your property, they probably have the right, but I’d think they’d have the obligation to let you know when/where.
kurahee: You know, the paint doesn’t last very long. Between the weather and mowing, pretty soon you won’t see the marks.
Marking underground utilities is not a “bonehead” thing to do. Just ask any contractor who hit a power line or gas line which was un-marked. That is, if he’s still around to ask.
I kind of doubt it. Yes, sometimes marks are made and then “surveyed in” as part of mapping; but if the Mayor’s neighborhood got new cable lines it sounds likely that your neighborhood is getting new lines as well. Particularly when you say your neighbor has the same marks.
If the cable co. has no easement from you then they usually run their line within the right of way. If you can look down the street, sight a line along any fire hydrants/telephone pedestals/power poles. The strip bewteen this line of objects and the street is part of the street right-of-way.
If they’re out of the right-of-way, and not in any easment, you might want to call their number and report it.
Don’t know about in your jurisdiction, but in mine, the call before you dig people (ours is called USA) don’t actually do the marking. Someone calls in a dig, and they alert all of the line owners in the designated area. Those companies are then responsible for marking their own lines. So if my contractor called in 3 days before they were going to work, the cable company, the gas company, etc. would all come out and mark their own lines. If, say, the phone company did NOT come out, and my contractor then broke an unmarked line, it’s the phone companies problem to fix it.
You have multi-colored flags because there are different lines in your yard. Our colors here are consistent with what NinetyWt said. And just because you see the flags doesn’t mean that they’re going to dig there–often, they’ll put flags out along the line past the excavation boundary so they’re still visible during the dig. The actual excavation should be marked in a white square (here at least. YMMV.) And it might say who’s requesting the alert–that’s who I would start talking to. But they rarely dig for no reason, and they’re probably not going to NOT fix a broken line or whatever to save your oleanders. Especially if they’re planted in the easement.
You are right, of course. Marking is **NOT ** a bonehead thing to do. Painting big red, orange, and white arrows all over my yard is what I was referring to, especially when I specifically told them not to. Also, since the flags are there, and I know where I’m going to plant (I’m using a shovel, not a backhoe), and according to the markings I don’t have anything to worry about, I don’t understand their policy of wanting me to call back and have it re-marked if I don’t get the plants in by next week.
It’s not like they are going to be laying any cable, gas, electric or water lines without me or the rest of the neighborhood knowing it.
I’ve called the “one call” number a couple times, and they’ve marked both the lines/water mains/etc. in the easement AND the cables that actually service my house (e.g., they marked the path the conduit holding my electric service cable took from the base of the pole to my meter). Those cables and pipes, the ones that actually go to the house and are just for me, aren’t in easements, yet they get marked.
And I don’t get all the anger over this. It’s a valuable service. They do it quickly, efficiently, and for free. The paint will go away quick, and it’s a small price for the peace-of-mind in knowing that some contractor isn’t going to electrocute himself when his trencher grabs your power line, or a backhoe knocks out your internet access for a few days.
I think my personal anger will subside if the paint washes away in a week’s time. I have to say, though that the red paint especially is bothering me. It was sprayed not only on grass, but on some nice white landscaping stones that I paid a nice buck for, and some overspray hit some nice bushes that I planted this spring. If it doesn’t wash off and is permanent, I’ll be irked. They could have used flags in both places.
I will say that one company DID use flags only, and was very respectful of my plantings and property in general.
In my experience from calling in JULIE’s (Illinois’s version of the utility locate program), the number you call isn’t the person who’ll be doing the marking. Each utility sends out its own people to locate on the site.
Also, note the words “on the site”. If you call and say you’re going to dig at 345 Maple St, then each utility company comes out and marks any of their lines or cables buried at 345 Maple Street. Even if you only plan to dig in one spot, they come out and mark everything on the site. It’s just safer that way. Right now, the village is installing street lights along a road by me and I have JULIE marks and flags running between my neighbor’s back yard and mine, some 60’ away from the road. But they’re putting a light in her parkway so her entire yard got marked.
In the case Ivylass presents, I assume that’s what happened. Someone needs to perhaps dig on the easement and so they called for a utility locate and the different people came out and marked any gas/cable/water/phone/electric/etc line that fell under their jurisdiction. Even if no one is planning to dig there.
Let me back up a moment and say, kurahee, I think it was quite wise of you to call in a locate. Some lines (phone lines especially) can be quite close to the surface and easily broken by a shovel or small tiller.
The question of paint vs. flags - flags are enticing to children, both young and old. If I were the utilily I may paint 'cause, it’s gonna stay there.
If they damaged your landscaping rocks, you probably can get replacements. The bushes - those leaves will shed and the problem will be gone.
As to the re-marking; again this is SOP for utilities; they will re-mark after a certain length of time or after several rain events if the project is not completed.
The paint thing gets me going here. They have put paint on the flowers, the expensive decrative marble stone, and paver type stones. Many tyimes nobody is even doing anything in the area.
In my experience, the flags are to point to where they’re *not * supposed to dig. We called JULIE to find out where our pipes were, and they were complete weenies about it, but we were able to avoid digging up all the important stuff when we wired our garage to a bigger circuit. The different colors signify different utilities, I guess. When you see a flag, don’t dig or you’ll take out the entire neighborhood.
As for the mowing, I think the utility companies trump your long grass. Which totally sucks.
