New York Laws
Article 11 - Miscellaneous Provisions
319 - Obstructions and Their Removal.

§ 319. Obstructions and their removal. 1. Obstructions, within the
meaning of this section, shall include trees which have been cut or have
fallen either on adjacent lands or within the bounds of the highway, in
such a manner as to interfere with public travel therein; limbs of trees
which have fallen within the highway, or branches of trees overhanging
the highways so as to interfere with public travel therein; lumber, wood
or logs piled within the bounds of the public highway; machines,
vehicles and implements abandoned or habitually placed within the bounds
of the highway; fences, buildings or other structures erected within the
bounds of the highway; earth, stone or other material placed in any
ditch or waterway along the highway; telegraph, telephone, trolley and
other poles, and the wires connected therewith, erected within the
bounds of the highway in such a manner as to interfere with the use of
the highway for public travel.

2. It shall be the duty of each owner or occupant of lands situate
along the highway, to remove all obstructions within the bounds of the
highway, which have been placed there, either by themselves or by their
consent. It shall be the duty of all telephone, telegraph, electric
railway and other electrical companies, to remove and reset telephone,
telegraph, trolley and other poles and the wires connected therewith,
when the same constitute obstructions to the use of the highway by the
traveling public. If temporary obstructions such as trees, lumber, wood,
logs, machinery, vehicles and similar obstructions are not removed
within forty-eight hours after the service of a notice, personally or by
mail, upon such owner or occupant, requesting the same to be done, the
town superintendent shall remove such obstruction. And if permanent
obstructions, including, among others, telegraph, telephone, trolley and
other poles and wires connected therewith, are not moved and reset
within thirty days, the town superintendent shall move and reset such
poles and wires. The expense thereby incurred shall be paid in the first
instance out of moneys levied and collected and available therefor, and
the amount thereof shall be charged against such owner, occupant or
company, and levied and collected, as provided in section one hundred
and fifty-seven.