June 9, 2009 Smelly telephone poles have town worried Play video

(NECN: Katie Daly, Upton, Mass.) - Some people in Upton are concerned about a terrible smell coming from hundreds of telephone poles in town. The poles have been treated with a chemical, and its not just the smell that has people worried.

On a sunny afternoon, Kathleen Byrn is keeping her windows shut and wont allow her children to play outside.

Town officials believe the source of the smell is 500 telephone poles stored on the property by the Grafton Upton railroad. Ken Picard is the chairman of the Board of Selectman in Upton. He says while they haven’t pinpointed the exact cause of the smell, it may have something to do with the chemical on the poles called pentachlorophenol also known as penta.

Byrn feels like she has been left in the dark and says she has not received much information from the town.

Al Holman is the chairman of the Board of Health. He says the odor will not cause negative side effects.

Representatives from the Grafton and Upton railroad company say the company that owns the telephone poles say that they are working with local and state officials and that it is important for them to be good neighbors. Monday they released this statement.

“We agreed to move the poles to a more remote area of the site near the town's sewage treatment plant. In order to do that, we need to remove some rock and re-cut the dirt access road to a nearby cell tower because the road now runs across where the poles will be stored.

The

company adds that the poles will be moved from its current site in a week. But Byrn would like to see them completely removed from the town.