Moses Lake allows overhead power lines

PUD upgrading substation

MOSES LAKE - The Moses Lake City Council granted the Grant County Public Utility District a waiver with a 4-3 vote to install overhead power lines instead of underground Tuesday.

Grant County PUD System Planning & Protection Engineer William Coe said the Peninsula Substation located on Peninsula Drive reached maximum capacity.

Coe said the system infrastructure needs to be upgraded otherwise future growth in the area will not be served with power.

The upgrade takes place on parts of Peninsula Drive, Westshore Drive, Lakeshore Drive and William Avenue, where there are already existing power lines.

Coe said there is a possibility there will be fewer power poles once the project is complete. This is no intention to add more power lines.

He said the streets won't look much different than they do now. He said there would still be poles because the poles serve as street lights if the system went underground. The old poles will be replaced with newer poles for a cleaner look. There will be no additional transformers installed, he added.

The Grant County PUD requested to install the power lines overhead because it is cheaper.

To install overhead it is expected to cost approximately $2 million.

To install the utilities underground it is expected to cost more than $9 million.

Coe said if the city wants to have the utilities installed underground, the cost difference is billed to the city.

City Manager Joe Gavinski said he was not sure if the difference is billed to the city because the city has an ordinance prohibiting future overhead lines.

Councilmember Richard Pearce moved to deny the waiver request.

"Now's the time to underground down there. There's no sidewalks to tear up," he said. "I just can't imagine we loose this opportunity that will never happen again."

Pearce said citizens told him they don't want overhead power lines.

"Fifty years from now we're going to be looking at those old falling poles," he said.

Pearce, and councilmembers Jim Liebrecht and Dick Deane voted against granting the waiver.

Councilmembers Brent Reese, Jon Lane, Bill Ecret and Mayor Ron Covey voted to allow the waiver to proceed.

"I don't think it's really practical," Reese said. "It's not like they are putting new poles where there were no poles. I don't want to see the rate payers pay more."

Reese and Pearce agreed if the Grant County PUD or the city paid the difference between the overhead cost and the underground cost, the citizens would still be paying for the difference.

"The citizens had us make an ordinance," Pearce said.

He said the council should vote against the waiver to see who would be responsible for payment of the difference before granting the waiver.