Tulsa Residents Can't Find Help For Ivy Covering Power Pole

Out-of-control ivy has swallowed power lines, and Tulsa homeowners want to know who's responsible for cleaning it up.

At first glance Jack Cole's back yard looks lush, with a fence covered in ivy separating his property from the neighbors and nearby businesses.

"No, that's not a fence and it's just growth over their privacy fence," said neighbor Pat Core.

The green is dangling from power lines.

"Yeah sometimes it swings in the wind and when that 50 mile per hour wind comes and I was gritting my teeth,” said Cole.

He said the ivy has already destroyed a fence and weighs down power poles, but the homeowners can't seem to get the power and cable companies or city to clean it up.

“It's very frustrating. You call one person and they say ‘it's not our problem,' and then you call somebody else and they say it's not our problem,” said Core.

A city of Tulsa spokesperson said when it comes to utility easements; homeowners are responsible for the upkeep, unless there are special circumstances.

Core said, "I'm not getting up there with the electric line, no way, and they are not either."

"We don't know what type of line's in there, but we know that you could get shocked, or something like that. We need someone that knows what it's about to take care of it," said Cole.

A Cox Cable spokesperson said the power company should deal with the overgrown plants, PSO crews won't come out until the power line touches the ground - all things the neighbors have heard before.

“It's very scary and on the other side of the fence it's even more grown over than this,” Core said. “The only thing I can say it keeps intruders out of the back yard. That's the only thing.”

A PSO crew will be out in that area next week to kill the vine.