After the extended loss of power in the area (which continues for some Central Virginia residents) owing to Hurricane Isabel, an obvious question that comes to mind is that of why our electrical lines aren’t buried. Virginia Dominion Power says that it could cost “several million dollars a mile” to bury utility lines, but others argue that it couldn’t be nearly that cheap. Attorney Lloyd Smith has discovered that Charlottesville’s 1888 franchise agreement requires Dominion Power to bury the lines, if City Council so requests. Who is right isn’t clear, but it’s newly-obvious that something has got to change. Lisa Provence has the story in this week’s Hook.
News and meta-news about Charlottesville, VA, since 2001.
Sideblog
Police announced this afternoon that their investigation into what was initially believed to be a fatal fire on Rugby Avenue is now a homicide investigation. #
The Virginia Supreme Court has denied George Huguely’s appeal. His second-degree murder conviction will stand, WRIC reports. #
In a carefully worded story, and not citing specific sources, WTVR reports that forensic evidence belonging to Jesse Matthew Jr., the main suspect in the disappearance of Hannah Graham, matches forensic evidence collected during the investigation of Morgan Harrington’s 2009 murder. #
In the wake of Hannah Graham’s disappearance, and the evidence that came from private security footage, city officials are revisiting the question of installing security cameras on the downtown mall. #
Both Charlottesville Registrar Sheri Iachetta and former Electoral Board member Stephanie Commander have turned themselves in to the police on
foursix and four felony counts of embezzlement, respectively. #Ten years ago, the National Institutes of Health budget doubled and schools like the University of Virginia built massive new research facilities. A decade later, those buildings remain largely underutilized. NPR visits UVA in this story on the effect of federal binge and spurge spending in the sciences. #
In 2012, Council approved a new student housing complex on West Main—now some council members are questioning whether what they were shown matches what was built. #
The Architectural Review Board has approved a bike-themed mural on West Market, below the McGuffey Art Center, although at least one member expressed concerns that it might look like the bicyclists were riding away from Charlottesville’s downtown. #
City Police Chief Tim Longo is meeting with city leaders to work on protocols regarding the use of military surplus police weapons in Charlottesville. #
A 100-year-old Colonnades resident received military honors for her service in the WWII Women’s Army Corps #
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because the faults lies with George W. Bush for not modernize the power grid I tell you!
From the Progress story:
“It’s so obvious that if these lines were underground, this would be a different story,” says downtown doyenne Kay Peaslee, a former newspaper editor who accuses City Council of caving in to the electric company by not demanding underground utilities.
Both Peaslee and Smith mention that utility lines are buried throughout Europe. “Italy can put them through solid rock,” says Smith.
From CNN.com today: Electricity was restored across Italy as investigations were under way into the cause of the country’s worst power failure since World War II.
Initial findings show that storms may have tossed a tree branch onto power lines in Switzerland, starting a chain reaction by overloading another Swiss line and knocking out power from French lines into Italy.
“After that, all connections to Italy dropped out,” Rolf Schmid, spokesman for the Swiss power company Atel, told The Associated Press.
Yes, he’s had 3 years to do it DAMMIT! Should’ve been a done deal!!
lol
It is the kind of discussion topic that makes me miss "Sympatico".
I wonder if Provence tried (or tried and failed) to get any other City leaders on the record, beyond (*bleech*) Blake?
What again is our mayor’s purported field of expertise?
Oh, I’m sure sympy is here, just under a new alias..
If the city requires Dominion Power to bury the lines, who foots the bill for that? If it is Dominion Power, you know they will pass the expenses on to the consumer, and you will see you electricity bill go up.
As the article suggests, have Dominion Power bury a reasonable amount each year- certainly any location where streets are being dug up for other reasons. I can’t imagine the past week and a half were "cheap" for Dominion Power- paying overtime and other companies to help get all but 20% of their customers back online. If it is in the 1888 agreement to have them buried upon our request, than of course they should be buried! Anyone who agrees should write city council members and Mayor Cox and tell them how you feel.
I agree – as long as ONLY City residents are required to pay for such folly.
There’s a lovely controversy going on right now regarding Dominion Power in the areas harder hit than we were. Apparently Dominion’s phone message said that the worker’s were working "around the clock" to restore power. The controversy being that some people foolishly took that to mean (actually, everyone took that to mean) that crews were out on rotating shifts working through the night. But Dominion in fact only had out their regular skeleton crews that are always on duty anyway (described by a rep from Dominion Power as 1 or 2 crews- for the greater service area). This due to the fact that they don’t want to pay employees a lot of overtime. Meanwhile, the employees have stated that they’re more than happy to work longer shifts more often until the power is all restored because they’d love the chance for some good overtime. So everyone in New Kent and Dinwiddie, etc. is pissed at Dominion because they’ve not been doing all they can to get power back up faster. Overtime? Nope.
(Source was interviews with Dominion by the Richmond news station that broadcasts Michael Graham.)
I’d have to disagree with that report. In my neck of the woods (west of the mislabeled urban ring), there were both Dominion and PIKE (from Mt. Airy, NC) crews out 24-7 for the first few days. We were offering them coffee and expressing our gratitude, and they reported having been working non-stop. I didn’t get the impression that they were being dishonest.
No one said the line workers were being dishonest. It’s the people still without power that are pissed because after that initial few days it was back to a day only work schedule (Two 12 hour shifts overlapping mid-day). Dominion reps were interviewed on the radio about it admitting that they were back to a couple of night-time skeleton crews as usual, so you’d be disputing Dominion themselves.
this is ridiculous. bury the power lines? ok, first ofall, you’ll have to take parts of the grid down for extended periods of time while you bury the lines. not to mention the traffic snarls it will cause while dom. va. power is digging up roads and sidewalks all over town. not only will it be extremely expensive to bury the power lines, but they’ll be more expensive and time-consuming to maintain, b/c every time there’s a problem with a line, they’ll have to dig it up. there’s more downtime and more delays.
given the fact that power outages of the magnitude of the one caused by isabele happen VERY rarely, i think all this bitching and moaning about power is unfounded. sure, it’s a PITA to not have power for two weeks, but when was the last time you remember that happening? i think people would be more pissed about a 30% increase in their power bill to cover the costs of burying the lines.
It is a LOT more expensive to bury the lines than to repair them when they go down. This isnt even a point for discussion, the answer to the question is money.
Do you want to pay for it? So far voters everywhere have decided they’d rathar not spend the money.
This is only an issue now, a year ago we wanted to buy a ten bazillion dollar water treatment plant. Next year we will want a monorail. Go back to your 22 minute sitcoms and keep your short attention span out of our infrastructure planning.