Before cellphones and social media – even before electricity – bells were serious communication.

Bells called children to school and the faithful to church; a tavern bell signaled the last call for booze; its pattern of chimes can honor a fallen firefighter.

And Geneva’s going to get some bells ringing. Not the kind with a clapper. Not the kind for school or church or Christmas.

It’s the kind where inspectors will bang the city’s 2,400 utility poles with claw hammers looking for rot.

The Geneva City Council Monday approved a contract for nearly $86,000 to inspect its 2,400 utility poles to see which ones need replacement.

The contract, for $85,500, was awarded to Osmose Utility Services Inc., with headquarters in Atlanta, records show.

The city did a system-wide pole replacement program in the 1970s, and the last full survey of utility poles was done in the early 1990s, according to a memo from Superintendent of Electrical Services Aaron Holton.

“Taken together, the majority of the poles on the system are between 30 and 50 years old,” according to Holton’s memo. “It is a general industry standard that wood poles have an effective life span of 50 years. This contract will give staff the needed information to plan replacement of wood poles in coming fiscal years.”

Third Ward Alderperson Dean Kilburg asked if Osmose was going to do a visual inspection of the city’s utility poles, or was some equipment involved.

Holton said they don’t climb the poles.

“The inspection starts out with a visual – they walk up to the pole and look up and down ... looking for imperfections," Holton said.

“They do a sounding, which is very technical: They take a big claw hammer and pound it. They pound the pole. As a little bit of trivia, a healthy pole will ring like a bell if you hit it with a hammer,” Holton said. “If a pole has any rot in it, it will be a dull thud.”

Osmose will also do soil borings below the ground level of the city’s utility poles to see how healthy the butt of the pole is, Holton said.