Fiber Optic Installment in Carl Junction

     I live on Roney Street, the first house east of the elementary school in Carl Junction, Missouri.  On my way home from work last Thursday, I noticed orange flags placed in a line all the way from Joplin Street west to Roney Street, leading to the elementary school.  I soon learned that a construction crew would be digging where the flags had been placed to install new AT&T fiber optic lines for the school.  The construction crew started digging on Monday, August 29, 2011.  Each day that followed, I noticed a considerable amount of progress had been made. When the crew reached my block, everything went downhill. 

     As I pulled in my drive way on Wednesday, August 31, 2011, there were two huge construction machines sitting at each end of my drive way.  I also saw a white piece of paper sticking out of my screen door.  When I looked at the piece of paper it read, “We will fix your fence. Sorry we hit it.” I turned rapidly around to see the damage, which immediately made me nauseous.  One top rail of my chain link fence was broken; it looked like a car had plowed into it.  At that point I did not care about the note; I wanted my fence fixed as soon as possible.   

     As I arrived home on Thursday afternoon, I suddenly realized my fence was again in perfect condition. I was relieved to see the repair had been made.  A little while later, our nosy neighbor came over to relay the eventful activities performed by the construction crew that had gone on during the day.  I was shocked to hear the crew had hit a water main next to our mailbox, which created pools of mud all over the street. Even though the crew had once again done some damage, this event was not nearly the worst of it.  The next thing the crew broke was a gas line, twenty feet from the school.  Staff and children had to be evacuated to a school further down the street.  This incident quickly turned into an emergency situation.  The city fire trucks and police officers showed up in a panic.  Ambulances also arrived as a precaution in case someone had been overcome by gas fumes or hurt in any way.  The firemen were ready, water hoses in hand.  The crew eventually capped off the gas line and the havoc soon abated.  Thank God no one was hurt.  

     When I woke up this morning the crew was already back to work, digging a three foot by three foot trench directly in front of my house.  I felt as if I was trapped, I could not walk out my gate toward my car to go anywhere.  I thanked the foreman of the crew for fixing my fence and he replied to one of his crew workers, “You hit their fence?” I found this statement to be hysterically funny because the crew’s boss did not even know what was going on with this job.  The job finally ended at about two o’ clock this afternoon, the good news is that the school can use a fiber optic network. Hopefully, there will be no further construction jobs in front on my house for a very long time.