Late Thursday (April 6) afternoon, there was extensive damage to the utility poles and lines in the 700 block of Belvin St. The damage appeared to have been caused by a very large truck driving down the street. There was one utility pole leaning at about a 45 degree angle out toward the street. The top portion of another pole had snapped and, while it did not break off, it was dangling downward at an alarming angle. As a result of the damage to the poles there were a lot of low hanging lines over the street and sidewalks. The scene really needed to be seen to be believed, but it was pretty catastrophic.
Shortly after the damage occurred, a large number of SMEU vehicles and their crews arrived at the scene. I know that they worked through the night (and rain) because I woke up at about 3:00 in the morning and they were still out there in force. When I left the house at 7:30 Friday morning to take my dog on his morning walk, there were no obvious signs that anything out of the ordinary had ever occurred. I don’t know how they did it. I really don’t have words to express my appreciation, as well as my admiration for the professionalism and skill of the workers who accomplished this. I saw the situation that they inherited first hand, and how they got from there to here is amazing.
A side issue to this incident is the fact that a large truck was driving down this section of Belvin at all. I suspect it was because the driver did not feel the truck could fit down the “improved” version of Hopkins with its ridiculously narrow lanes and lack of shoulders. This is also probably the reason that Belvin now has so much more emergency vehicle traffic than it used to. Fire trucks, ambulances and police cars are probably reluctant to use Hopkins since there is no way for other vehicles to pull over and let them by. My point is not to complain about the emergency vehicle traffic. They have to get to their destinations the quickest way possible. But I do think it illustrates what happens when street projects are done from an ideological standpoint instead of from a practical standpoint. And unfortunately, Hopkins is not the only recent example of ideological (and illogical) street projects in San Marcos.
