Newton panel holds Eversource pole petition, demands engineering answers before vote

NEWTON — January 7, 2026 — Newton's Public Facilities Committee votes 7-0-1 to hold an Eversource Energy utility pole petition on Rumford Avenue. The committee held Item 12-26, a petition to install a new jointly owned pole — Pole 866/6A — to supply three-phase underground service to a new warehouse at 100 Rumford Avenue, after members questioned why the three transformers required for the project could not themselves be placed underground. Eversource representative Joanne Calendar told the committee the existing poles on Rumford Avenue lacked the capacity for three new transformers but acknowledged she could not answer technical questions about the underground alternative. Councilor Susan Albright, who moved the hold, said approving a new pole specifically to enable undergrounding "is not something we do all the time." Eversource supervisor Richard Shifoni and engineering supervisor Jason Kaminsky are expected at the committee's January 21 meeting, where Calendar also agreed to invite the warehouse's building owner to explain the project's design choices. Councilor Lisa Gordon cast the lone abstention, citing concern about the construction delay the hold imposes on the business.