BILL NUMBER: S9980
SPONSOR: SKOUFIS
 
TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the public service law, in relation to reducing the
response time for securing downed wires to one hour upon notice
 
PURPOSE:
Requires Utility Companies to respond to calls for downed wires in a
timely manner to protect the valuable time of our volunteer first
responders who also respond to such calls.
 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
Section one amends subparagraph (xi) of paragraph (a) of subdivision 21
of section 66 of the public service law, as separately amended by chap-
ter 743 of the laws of 2022 and chapter 28 of the laws of 2024 to
require utility companies to physically respond to and promptly secure
downed wires within one hour of notification from a municipal emergency
responder.
Section two amends paragraph (c) of subdivision 21 of section 66 of the
public service law, as added by section 4 of part X of chapter 57 of the
laws of 2013 to impose a fine on utility companies who don't respond and
secure downed wires in a timely manner.
Section three establishes the effective date.
 
JUSTIFICATION:
Requiring fire departments to respond to incidents of downed wires is a
misappropriation of our volunteer first responders time and energy. In
upstate New York, the vast majority of Fire Fighters are volunteers.
Volunteer fire companies don't have the jurisdiction to fix downed elec-
trical wire but when they are called to the scene, they often spend
several hours waiting for the utility companies to arrive to the scene
before they can leave. Utility companies will often have volunteer fire-
men waiting on a scene for hours upon hours, for a problem they cannot
fix. We cannot continue to waste our volunteers' time responding to a
problem that they aren't equipped to help with and save their time for
when our communities really need them.
 
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
New Bill.
 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
None.
 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect immediately.

Statutes affected:
S9980: 66 public service law, 66(21) public service law