Homeowner Forum / Construction / March 2005

The telephone co will have you remove it

If it is a telephone-only pole and the telephone co. has legal easement, it
is their property and you'd need their permission. (I doubt they'll give it)

If it also has electric co. service on it (jump pole or transformer pole)
the electric co will lease you a dusk-to-dawn for a fairly small monthly
fee. It's about $6/mo here, including electric usage.

http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/productdetail.jsp?xi=xi&ItemId=1611719503&ccitem=

Consider a mercury vapor lamp, and a photovolataic sensor switch.  Be sure
the feed line has some kind of circuit breaker protection.

Aside from the common easement laws in your area, a utility pole physically
inside your property and not within the standard easement is implied consent
of the property owner at the time of installation.  I have one such a
utility pole that has the electric "flower pot" and primary electric panel
on it.  The transformer is on a pole that feeds it, which is in the easement
line, also on my property.  Multiple poles may be needed to get a utility to
a house too far away from the property line.  The phone company buried their
line incidentally, TV is satellite.

Call the utility company first, and be sure they understand the location of
the utility pole on your property.

Consider a mercury vapor "on-at-dusk; off-at-dawn" controlled unit for wide
dispersion area.  Otherwise, have you considered a series of low-volt spots
on timer or photo-cell?