Neighborhood is wired (at first you wanted to duck)

Tipster Candelaria Silva-Collins asks GlobeWatch to help answer a question that she and her husband have about a mess of utility wires that droop across Wrentham Street in Dorchester. "There are low-hanging wires that are bundled together by a clear core/wire that is becoming unraveled. We are concerned that these wires will soon pose a hazard to residents and others who walk on the street," writes Silva-Collins in an e-mail.

"A secondary issue to us is why there are so many wires on our street. In daily walks and drives through the neighborhood, we have noticed that some streets have no visible hanging wires and some blocks have a proliferation," she writes. "Our block of Wrentham between Adams and Florida streets has a lot of wires and many of them hang low. Not only are they unsightly, but we know that when our 6-foot-7-inch son comes to visit he could touch one particularly low-hanging bunch without much effort. Who decides what streets have wires and what do not? How does one identify to which utility company the various wires belong?"

A visit by a Globe reporter last week found a thick bundle of black wires hanging perilously low over the sidewalk in front of 118-120 Wrentham St. Farther up the street, more wires from a pole drooped so low between two houses at 64 and 66 Wrentham that even a person who isn't 6 feet 7 could seemingly reach out and touch with ease.

The city responds

A number of telephone, electrical, and cable television companies have wires strung from utility poles along city streets, said Meaghan Maher, a spokeswoman for the city. In this case, the wires in front of 118-120 Wrentham belong to Comcast. Those between 64 and 66 Wrentham are owned by Verizon, she said.

Inspectors from the city's department of public works visited the area last week and contacted both companies to inform them the wires needed attention, said Maher.

Within days, the problems appear to have been solved.

Jim Hughes, a Comcast spokesman, said workers checked out the low-hanging wires in front of 118-120 Wrentham St. last week and took care of them so they're not a potential hazard anymore.

Verizon spokesman Phil Santoro said the sagging wires between 64 and 66 Wrentham St. were also fixed last week.

Who's in charge

With so many utility companies using street poles to run wires and cables to their customers, identifying which wire belongs to which company is a complicated matter. The city's Public Works Department maintains a master list, though both Verizon and Comcast welcome calls for reports of downed wires.

To report problems with utility poles or dangling wires, call the mayor's constituent hot line at 617-635-4500.

Updates

The Department of Conservation and Recreation checked the street lights along Turtle Pond Parkway in Hyde Park (Aug. 5 GlobeWatch), and all appeared to be working properly, said Wendy Fox, a DCR spokeswoman.

Tipster Mack Davidson tells GlobeWatch that more than a year after we highlighted his (May 2006) plea for the city to post street-cleaning signs on Harrison Avenue by Massachusetts Avenue, and to tow cars that violate the parking restrictions, the city finally came through. "A few weeks ago, the city did install street sweeping signs on our street. We now receive curbside street sweeping on Thursdays. Thanks for highlighting our problem in your column."

Is something broken in your neighborhood? E-mail globewatch@globe.com. Follow up on items at www.boston.com/globewatch.