Politics & Government

'Bury the Lines,' Say Parents to Power-Tower Planners

Wauwatosa residents are among Milwaukee Montessori families opposed to overhead transmission lines.

A controversial plan with an option for massive new overhead power lines leading to the County Grounds met Monday with strong grass-roots resistance and a staunch political foe whose rallying cry is, "Bury the lines."

Parents from the Milwaukee Montessori School, 345 N. 95th St. in Milwaukee, held a press conference at the Wauwatosa Civic Center an hour before American Transmission Co. convened an open house meeting on the project Monday afternoon.

Vincent Lyles, a Wauwatosa resident who has two children at the school, said 20 percent of the 430 children enrolled live in Tosa, and that hundreds more families that live in Tosa immediately north of the school would also be affected.

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"The current plans have the lines running right along our parking lot," Lyles said. "Even though the studies on the effects of overhead transmission lines go both ways, I can't help but think about what we don't know.

"Secondarily, from a visibility point of view, if you're the parent of a 3- or 4-year-old child you're considering enrolling in our school, you're going to have concerns about these huge power lines confronting you as you pull up," he added.

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"As a parent, I would absolutely have concerns about these greeting me in the parking lot."

The proposed power lines, if erected overhead, would be supported by towers 60 to 80 feet tall and would carry 138,000 volts.

As to the issue of safety, Milwaukee 10th District Ald. Michael Murphy was blunt.

"We do not want to play chicken with the safety of our children," he said.

"Hundreds of residents turned out for a community meeting on this," Murphy said, "and there was a unanimous consensus that these lines should be underground."

Burying the lines may be a viable option but a very expensive one, according to ATC, which has calculated the difference as being as high as four times what overhead lines cost. The company will be obliged to bury the lines in dense residential areas where there simply is not enough room for the footprint of the towers.

But opponents from Montessori and the Wauwatosa and Milwaukee neighborhoods say that their corridor, which includes not only the school but also a church, an apartment complex and Cannon Park, should get the same consideration.

They also said there is a viable compromise. The Montessori school commissioned a study by Pike Energy Solutions of Austin, TX, that concludes that the most efficient solution would be for ATC to coordinate its plans with the Wisconsin Department of Transportation's Zoo Interchange Project.

That project, to rebuild the state's busiest intersection, would be occurring on about the same timetable and it requires relocating two existing power lines.

"There is more than enough right-of-way to bury all three electrical lines together," the study said. "A coordinated plan could be implemented to bury all three circuits ... allowing the existing character of the neighbors and the surrounding community to remain."

An ATC spokesman at the open house meeting following the parents' press conference said the company had received the Montessori-commissioned study and would consider it.

"We are looking at that," said Pete Holtz, the project manager for routing and siting of the power lines. "We're taking them seriously.

"It is very narrow behind those apartments. The DOT wants to have a retaining wall with a 5-foot cap along the roadway, and that leaves only about 20 feet between that and the building.

"We have to consider how close together we could bury all three lines without the heat affecting their carrying capacity. So, there are technical considerations as well as cost and aesthetics."

Any of the plans proposed by ATC will have to be approved by the Wisconsin Public Service Commission. Major customers for the energy, including the Milwaukee Regional Medical Center and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, have also voiced their opposition to overhead lines, as have many environmental groups.

A decision by the PSC will likely not come before early next year.


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