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Fight brews between utility, neighborhood
By SAUNDRA AMRHEIN © St. Petersburg Times, published April 15, 2001 John Olsen has nothing against utility companies, having worked for years as an engineer with both Cambridge Electric Light in Massachusetts and the Boston Elevated Street Railway. But the Spring Hill resident has a big problem with the attempts by Withlacoochee River Electric Cooperative to move utility lines from the back of houses in his neighborhood to easements in front of the houses. He says the poles are ugly and will create a safety problem if high winds threaten to knock them onto passers-by or houses. The company and county officials say the current poles are safety hazards because they are old and need to be repaired or replaced. But access to the poles and the lines is blocked by trees, fences or buildings. Not so, says Olsen. The rear easements in his neighborhood around Newhope Road -- near Pinehurst and Spring Hill Drives -- could be cleared without much problem, he said. "When I bought this house two years ago, I cleaned the easement out with simple garden tools," Olsen said. "What's the difference between putting new poles out front or putting new ones out back and cleaning the easements? They don't care what it looks like. They don't live here." In his last home in Spring Hill, utility poles in front of homes attracted fliers that announced yard sales. "If I didn't take them down, they'd sit there and blow in the wind," Olsen said. "That's true of most of Spring Hill." He said that when he learned that the posts were in the back at his current home, "I was delighted we wouldn't have to put up with that." Olsen said he has collected petitions against Withlacoochee's request from 22 property owners. Their complaints aren't the first to hit the company's ongoing attempts to relocate utility poles from rear to front lots. Spring Hill residents in 1989 and 1991 fought Withlacoochee's efforts to do just that, saying it would ruin the aesthetics of their homes to have utility poles in their front yards. The conflicts resulted in a county policy requiring the cooperative to obtain neighborhoods' approval before poles are moved. Ernie Holzhauer, spokesman for Withlacoochee, said the company is systematically working through parts of Spring Hill. "Some of the sections that were put in in the early 1970s have lines that were located in the rear," he said. "We realized somewhere in the late 1970s that wasn't the way to go and we stopped doing that. . . . It's a matter of safety. Poles are very, very old and need to be replaced. "We really want to be good neighbors," he said. "But over the years, easements become part of your own decor. Easements become encroached upon through the years by fences or pool enclosures or sheds. Often it's less intrusive for a community to relocate the poles than provide access." The company has sent petitions to all the property owners affected and expects to hear back within the next month, he said. Holzhauer did not know how many homes were affected but said the company is required by the county to obtain approval for the relocations from 51 percent or more of the property owners affected in each neighborhood. County Administrator Paul McIntosh said if the company does not receive approval by 51 percent or more of the property owners, it could make an additional, special request to the county commission for a permit. He thinks the greater safety risk is in not moving the poles, which are old and inaccessible to utility workers. "You have 30-year-old poles out there," McIntosh said. "If the poles are in the front, they are a heck of a lot easier to replace and repair. "If one of those wires comes down during a bad storm, from the pictures I've seen of the right of way, I don't know what Withlacoochee would do."
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