EASTHAMPTON — City councilors preparing to meet with Eversource representatives last month to discuss a permit for new and replacement utility poles on Loudville Road were shocked to find the job was already completed.

In addition, several shade trees had been removed as part of the project, and a fifth pole had been added, when the request received by the council specified four new poles and four relocated poles.

Councilor Owen Zaret, chair of the Property Committee, told the council earlier this month that the only options were to require the utility to remove the new poles, which didn’t seem practical, or to leave them and re-evaluate the procedure going forward.

Zaret said company representatives had “apologized profusely,” citing an administrative oversight for the error.

“We jumped the gun,” Eversource operations manager Michael Fraga told the council. He said there have been reliability problems in that part of the city and the materials were available for the job. He said the company would implement checks to prevent any repeat of the problem.

Councilor Brad Riley said it wasn’t just that the utility had bypassed the council that bothered him.

“We didn’t hear about it until a citizen told us,” he said, thanking Loudville Road resident Norman Taft, who was in attendance, for bringing the issue to the council’s attention.

He said he would support imposing penalties on the utility if the same thing were to happen again.

Councilor Koni Denham went further, terming the incident “really problematic.”

“I don’t want to support this in any way,” she said “I’m struggling with the way that corporate entities treat municipalities, as well its residents.”

Zaret noted the councilors’ concerns, and said he would recommend to the committee that the poles be removed if this happened again.

Councilor James “JP” Kwiecinski said it was “shocking” to see the poles already erected, and said he would love to join Denham’s protest vote, but that wish was outweighed for him by the project’s benefit to the community.

Taft, an arborist who said he has worked for National Grid for 36 years on distribution and transmission projects, urged the council to make sure the city isn’t rolling over for a large corporation.

“I would have asked the tree warden to exercise tough love,” he said, and make the utility justify its tree cutting.

In the end, the council, with Denham abstaining, voted to approve the petition by Eversource and Verizon to remove, relocate, construct and maintain a line of poles, wires, cables and fixtures on Loudville Road.

In addition, Eversource will be directed to grind out all stumps of shade trees removed within the project area and provide tree replacements of at least 1½ inches in diameter and 12 inches in height. Ground out stumps will be loamed and seeded no later than May 1.