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Although resident Paul Aßhoff had reported the problem from the beginning, the ENO had already installed a drive-through lantern at the location where a parking space was planned. But instead of dismantling the lantern for free, Aßhoff is offered to relocate it for 1,500 euros.
Offenbach – It seems like a bad joke: When Energienetze Offenbach, or ENO for short, installed temporary streetlights on behalf of the city in the Bürgel-Ost development area, resident Paul Aßhoff immediately asked. Aßhoff and his wife are planning a parking space for their car where the transition lantern will be placed. Especially since the lantern would have to be permanently in a different place anyway.
Aßhoff calls ENO and explains the emerging access problem. “The employee credibly assured me that this lantern will now be placed there as planned, but that it can later be moved without any problems.” Aßhoff is satisfied with this. Time passes: the lantern remains. At some point the parking lot will be finished and ready for use. If it weren’t for the tree.
An ENO employee says he cannot remember the conversation
Aßhoff then contacts the ENO employee and wants to remind him of the offer to move the lantern. What he hears there initially leaves him speechless. “The employee told me that the transfer could be done at any time, but it would cost 1,500 euros,” reports Aßhoff. “I should pay and not ENO.” When Aßhoff expressed his anger via email, he received the following offer from ENO: If he paid for the earthworks himself, the costs could be reduced to 1,000 euros.
Aßhoff says that even with Office 60 of the city administration, which commissioned the lanterns, he is getting nowhere. An employee informed him in writing that there was nothing that could be done. “I felt like I was in a bad movie,” says Aßhoff.
At ENO, a subsidiary of Offenbach Energy Supply (EVO), the employee in question no longer wants to remember the conversation with Paul Aßhoff. EVO spokesperson Harald Hofmann assures us of this. And there is no written evidence that such a conversation took place. Meanwhile, no one at ENO has a possible answer to the question of why Paul Aßhoff should have had an expensive car park built, even though the lantern was there.
When the editorial team followed up, things started to move
When the editorial team confronted the city administration with the events related to the transition lantern in the new development area of Bürgel Ost, something suddenly changed in the responsible office 60. “At the time of installation, the city thought that in the new area development work would have progressed more quickly,” city spokeswoman Kerstin Holzheimer tries to explain. In this case the permanent extension and permanent street lighting would have been completed more quickly and the temporary lighting would then have been removed. Meaning: Actually the makeshift lantern should have been gone a long time ago. And then follows the answer that Aßhoff had hoped for from the beginning: “The city will then move the lighting pole to its final position.”
Paul Aßhoff can finally breathe a sigh of relief and will soon use his parking space at the house as originally planned. He is still disappointed by the authorities’ hiccups. “I think it’s significant that the city didn’t take action until I contacted the paper. I am convinced that otherwise neither Amt 60 nor Eno would have given in.”
