DEWEY BEACH, De. -- There are some in Dewey Beach who feel a line in the sand has been crossed and their patience is being tested. The 5G poles installed on the dunes a few years ago, that were supposed to be taken down are still up.
In with the new and out with the old has been the mantra for Dewey Officials when it comes to the Verizon 5G poles. Town Manager Bill Zolper said they even got help from the state to make it happen.
"Representative Pete Schwartzkopf was able to get the town $375,000 to pay to have the poles moved," said Zolper.
So far, three out of five new poles have been installed. The old ones are still standing. However, Meryl Hershman, who lives in Dewey, said she doesn't think the poles needed to be moved away from the dunes in the first place.
"Honestly I don't think it was terribly ugly to start with," said Hershman.
On Wednesday, September 13th, Delmarva Power and Light did remove the meters from old poles on Rodney Avenue and Clayton Street, opening the door for Verizon to come out and remove those old poles.
"They should have it done within the next two weeks, at least have one of those poles moved then starting to work on the other two, which is on Clayton Street and then down on Cullen Street," said Zolper.
Even if that timeline is met, Dewey's work to get all five 5G poles moved won't be done.
"Collins Street, we still have to meet with Verizon and DP & L and come up with a new location on Collins street and then we have to go down and start working on St. Louis Street."
And town leaders say there is no definitive answer for when all of this work could be done.
"No they haven't, which is frustrating because we've been working on this for over a year," said Zolper.
The $375,000 the town has will expire in a year. Zolper said he does not believe it will take anywhere near that long to get these poles moved, but the clock is ticking.