Town of North Hempstead Supervisor Judi Bosworth said Monday that PSEG Long Island did not tell the town how tall utility poles would be when applying for permits to work on town roads as part of an electric grid upgrade project from Great Neck to Port Washington
“There was no indication the poles would be replaced with 80-foot poles,” Bosworth said in a letter to the editor sent to Blank Slate Media.
Bosworth said 23 of the 220 poles needed to complete the project are on town roads, the others on county and state roads.
The utility’s project, which began in late January, consists of the installation of transmission lines along 80-foot poles starting from Great Neck, running through Bayview Avenue in Manhasset, and ending in Port Washington. A mile of underground wires are also scheduled to be installed in the Village of Thomaston.
Bosworth said the permits were granted by the town’s highway superintendent in November 2013, before she took office and that the town “does not have the authority to regulate PSEG-LI.”
“PSEG-LI and its plans to provide electricity are governed by the state through LIPA and through the New York State Department of Public Service,” she said.
Bosworth said her letter was sent in response to a letter to the editor sent to Blank Slate Media two weeks ago by Great Neck resident Joan Swirsky, who demanded that Bosworth share details about the PSEG project with the public.
Audrey Zibelman, CEO of the state Department of Public Service, said in a letter dated April 14 that her department has started a review of the project to determine if there are any merits to halt the work. That study would be completed by April 30, she said.
Zibelman also said in her letter that in response to requests from town officials and residents her department will look into the feasibility of burying the wires, That study, Zibelman said, will be completed by mid-May.
The town board at an April 1 meeting unanimously approved the hiring of its own independent consultant to look into the feasibility of burying the wires.
The use of 80-foot poles and what has been called a lack of information about the project have been blasted by town officials and residents.
A petition with more than 1,400 signatures from North Hempstead residents, started by Port Washington resident Christine Hogan, blasts the project, calling the poles “aesthetically unpleasing” and saying that residents were not notified of the project’s details.
PSEG officials have said the project is intended to enhance the electrical grid of the Town of North Hempstead, which had come under intense criticism following Superstorm Sandy when many portions of the town lost power for more than two weeks.
PSEG Long Island President David Daly was blasted by residents and town officials for a lack of transparency at a town-sponsored forum March 25.
“PSEG Long Island have fallen short of the common standard of informing the community,” Bosworth said at the forum. “The transparency just hasn’t been there and our community feels compromised as a result.”
Daly said that the company started the project in response to an energy forecast study done by the utility company which found that “in 2014, there wasn’t going to be enough wire in the air” to supply the town with an adequate supply of energy during the summer months.
The New Jersey-based utility took control of Long Island’s electrical grid operations on Jan. 1 after LIPA and National Grid were blasted for their response to Superstorm Sandy and their failure to properly maintain the electrical grid.
PSEG spokesman Jeffrey Weir said the company has installed “200 of the 220 poles” and “just more than 10 percent of the transmission wire has been strung.” Weir said the project is expected to be completed before the end of May.
Weir said in an e-mail last week that the utility company is “ready to underground the transmission lines, provided the Town of North Hempstead funds it at their own expense without any increased cost to the rest of Long Island’s ratepayers.”
PSEG representatives defended the plan at a meeting of the Great Neck Chamber of Commerce at the Inn in Great Neck on Thursday.
“The idea was to keep the impact as low as possible on the transmission side,” said John Hawley, a senior territory manager for PSEG Long Island.
Hawley said the wires on 80-foot poles were out of reach of trees that could fall over and knock the wires out of place and that the poles could withstand winds up to 130 miles per hour.
“We wanted to make sure they could better withstand the elements,” Hawley said.
Hawley said the trimming of several trees in the town was necessary to complete the project.
“The trees look great,” he said. “ But there’s always going to be that delicate balance.”
Michael LiPetri, a regional manager for PSEG Long Island who also spoke at the chamber’s meeting, warned against putting the wires underground, saying that it would make it harder to find the source of a blackout.
“Outages underground are very hard to find,” he said.
The PSEG officials were invited to the chamber meeting to discuss energy-savings programs offered by the utility.
