With concerns that some of the wooden light poles located in numerous county parks could fall down, the Warren County Parks and Recreation Department plans to bring in an outside firm to conduct an inspection of 40 or more wooden light poles in the county.    

Last year, two wooden light poles fell down at Oakland Ball Park, adjacent to Oakland Elementary School, though nobody was hurt, according to Parks Director Chris Kummer.    

“They basically snapped at the base in heavy winds,” he said. 

The poles snapped because the part of the poles that anchor them into the ground rotted after decades of exposure to soil and moisture, Kummer said.  

“A lot of the infrastructure throughout the parks is just extremely old,” he said, adding that the wooden poles in the park system are about 25 years old on average, with the newest having been installed in 2002. 

Kummer appeared before Warren County Fiscal Court earlier this month to tell the magistrates and Judge-Executive Mike Buchanon about the issue and to get approval for a a plan to pay Buck Electric Inc. roughly $2,700 to remove the two remaining light poles at Oakland.

“The poles are kind of leaning,” he said, adding that this has led to some concern that their bases are rotting and the poles are in danger of falling over.  

Kummer said the poles haven’t been removed yet because the ground is too muddy to move into place the equipment needed to take down the light poles. 

At fiscal court, he also announced his intent to hire an outside firm to inspect between 40 and 44 poles found throughout the county’s parks to see if their anchor points have rotted.  

Though no one was hurt when either of the poles at Oakland Ball Park fell, the possibility that other poles may have rotted sections below the soil line presents a public safety hazard, he said. 

“That’s one of the reasons we’re trying to move fairly quickly,” he said.

While parks has not yet found a firm to conduct the inspection, Kummer said he expects the inspections – not including the cost of removal or replacement of any poles that present a danger – to be somewhere around $2,800.  

“What would be ideal is getting away from the wooden poles and getting some metal poles,” he said.

As a material used to build light poles, metal would be sturdier, last longer and wouldn’t rot in the ground, though he wasn’t sure if fiscal court would fund metal replacement poles due to the higher cost, he said. 

Buchanon said he was shocked to learn about the fallen poles. 

“It was a surprise,” he said. “We didn’t have signs of decay.” 

Because the rot that causes the poles to fall occurs below the soil line, it is important to check the county’s remaining wooden light poles to determine whether they present a danger, Buchanon said. 

No plans on how to replace the poles will be made until the inspection is complete, he said, adding that he would prefer metal poles.

Rex McWhorter, magistrate for the Fourth District, which contains Oakland, said he was unaware that the light poles fell until Kummer told fiscal court, an announcement he considered alarming. 

In the time since the first pole fell in January 2016, no constituents have called him about it, he said.  

McWhorter said he was in favor of performing an inspection and said $2,800 was not a great cost, and its potential to reveal poles that may be a threat to public safety is well worth it. 

“If they need to come down, they need to come down,” he said. “I don’t want them falling on a kid.”    

— Follow Daily News reporter Jackson French on Twitter @Jackson_French or visit bgdailynews.com.