Q&A: Fiber installation wreaking havoc on local lawns

June 28, 2022

Will you please provide information about the companies laying fiber optics all over Bartlesville?  We are getting deluged with calls from people with torn up yards who think it’s the City’s fault.

You know it’s bad when they’re sending messages from inside City Hall.

From City Beat, May 28 and June 10: The City maintains franchise agreements with local utility companies that allow them to install and maintain infrastructure necessary for offering services to local residents by accessing City easements, or “rights of way.”

To access the rights of way and install the infrastructure required, a permit must be obtained from the City’s engineering department, and work is coordinated with engineering department inspectors.

Currently, two utility companies are laying fiber locally after having obtained permits recently. Those companies are Bluepeak and AT&T. The City of Bartlesville does not have ties to any utility that it doesn’t have with all of them.

Anyone whose yard hasn’t been repaired six to eight weeks following an installation on City right of way can either report it directly to the contractor, or contact the City of Bartlesville Engineering Department by calling 918.338.4251 or Construction Inspector James Cutler at 918.331.8876, or email kdtoulou@cityofbartlesville.org.

Are they still doing that?

Is Popeye’s still coming to Bartlesville?

The most recent information the City has about the project is that Smitco Inc., the company building the franchise in Bartlesville, has submitted plans to the corporate office and is awaiting approval of those plans. There appears to be a delay on that end, as the corporate office is currently focused on expansion in the upper Midwest and has reportedly put the Bartlesville project on hold. So, as far as anyone knows, the Popeye’s plan is still on, just delayed.