Rosemead City Council angered by utility company

ROSEMEAD - Several City Councilmembers expressed their frustration Tuesday evening that a utility company is tearing up a street that the City had just worked to beautify.

At its City Council meeting, Helen Romero Shah, of the Southern California Gas Company had just presented information on a federally mandated high-pressure pipeline maintenance project that is slated to begin in February 2012.

"We are trying to beautify our city, but we're being backed up by the utility companies thinking they can come in whenever they want," Councilwoman Sandra Armenta said.

According to city officials, the city checked with utility companies to see if they were planning on performing projects before they went ahead with improvements at Walnut Grove Avenue over the summer.

"We messed up. You did contact us," said Shah.

Councilmembers also demanded that the utility company place the blame on themselves when alerting local residents that they would be again tearing up the streets and causing traffic delays in the area.

The gas line project, which is aimed at identifying any imperfections in the line, should be completed within eight weeks, officials said.