Pole replacement work will resume in the springtime

A stack of new steel utility poles next to Tekoa's Iron Horse Arena is now clear after a fall Avista project to replace 16 miles of old wooden poles from a substation in Idaho to a stopping point near Farmington.

The work was phase one of a 44-mile replacement to switch out Tamarack and Larch wood poles that have rotted after decades in the elements. A total of 290 poles were replaced in phase one, many of which were installed in the 1950s.

The next phase will resume in the spring – weather permitting – south from Farmington to a substation six miles north of Moscow.

“We don't go out in the fi...