Relationships Between Highway Departments and Public Utilities

To approach the subject in a reasonably intelligent manner, 1 thought first of finding out what other states were doing— how they were approaching the problems, and whether they were coming up with any solutions. I mailed a questionnaire to fourteen states, mostly surrounding Indiana and Ohio, and therefore with similar public utility organiza­ tions and similar types of trees and other woody forms of vegetation— for after all, a mutual problem of the highway department and the utility company is the interference or non-interference of poles and wires with the vegetation that grows under, above, and around these poles and wires, and the maintenance of this vegetation. This questionnaire asked very brief questions. I did not want long, involved answers. I wanted the questioned man to tell me con­ cisely whether things were under control between both parties, the highway department and the public utility; how it was done; whether the relationship was good; why it wasn’t working, if the opposite; and what he planned to do about it, if this latter condition existed or if there was no working plan or agreement at all. All fourteen states responded. I take that as a good omen. There seemed to be three set groups in these fourteen states, or three main types of working relations between the two parties: