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Lollygaggers might face power poles

Thirty North Redington Beach residents are again asked to pick who will bury the lines connecting to their homes.

NORTH REDINGTON BEACH - Buried power lines remove an eyesore, but they have to come out of the ground somewhere.

And if 30 homeowners don't make a decision soon, their front yards may sprout power poles where the lines will make the last leg of the trip above ground from street to home.

In other words, it'll be pretty right up to their property, and then get ugly quickly. This is just what the town was trying to avoid.

When officials decided to bury power lines on residential streets, the plan was for taxpayers to pick up the cost of the work up to each lot, and then for the homeowner to decide whether to pay Progress Energy or a private contractor to bury the line to the home. Either way, the utility and town needed to know.

The utility will charge about $1,500 per home.

Within the next week those homeowners will receive certified letters from the town asking them - for a second time - to choose between Progress Energy and a private party.

"We are required to provide power service to each customer. If we don't hear from them, it will have to be an above-ground connection," says Sam Nixon, Progress Energy's chief engineer for the North Redington Beach project.

And that means power poles in the public right of way in front of some homes.

Progress Energy charges $257.20 per underground connection, $7.12 per foot for installation of the service wire to the meter stand, and $850 for the meter connection itself.

Nixon, the engineer, says these charges are comparable to, if not less than, what outside contractors would charge. He said most homeowners have opted to have Progress Energy do the work.

About a year ago the Town Commission decided to bury all utility lines on its interior streets for about $1.8-million. The project was expected to be completed by the end of the year, but the summer hurricanes have put it about two months behind schedule.

The power company is within two or three weeks of completing electrical hookups for Phase 1 of the project. Underground wires are in place along 173rd Avenue, Rosalee Way and Kennedy Drive.

Only one of this group of homeowners has yet to choose how they will connect to the buried electrical service, Nixon said.

Work on Phase 2, which will encompass the rest of the town (except Gulf Boulevard), is about to begin and is expected to be completed by early spring.

"Quite a few residents in Phase 2 of the project, which includes Dolphin and Bath Club Boulevard, have not responded. This could hold up the project," says Mayor Harold Radcliffe. "Anyone with questions is urged to contact Town Hall at 391-4848. It is vital to get these responses in the company's hands as soon as possible."