PSC Decision on Power Lines 'Heartbreaking,' Mayor Says

Opting to consider burying lines only when and where engineering considerations demand it, commission approves overhead lines for almost all of two new power routes.

After a year and a half of local debate, protest and consenus-building, and considerable expense to Wauwatosa, the Wisconsin Public Service Commission on Friday swiftly approved a plan to construct overhead power lines leading onto the County Grounds. Wauwatosa had joined with Milwaukee County, the City of Milwaukee and many other parties to oppose any overhead lines in the city. Mayor Kathy Ehley called the decision "heartbreaking" and decried the speed with which the commissioners acted on the it and their seeming lack of consideration for any of the local arguments against it. "I was following the tweets on the hearing," Ehley said, "and I was shocked at how fast they moved through this agenda item." "It is just so disheartening," Ehley…

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Deb Strzelecki

10:53 am on Thursday, March 7, 2013

My guess is you do not live anywhere the planned route. Progress done with a brain doesn't have to be ugly. The farce of those meeting where "public input is welcome" are just a huge LIE and waste of time. I first started going to them in the mid 90s during the original "Save The County Grounds" effort (which worked at that time), but then stopped going to them around 2006-7 because the big …   more ›

Overhead Line Opponents Pour Out for Hearings

In last opportunity for challenges before the Public Service Commission rules, almost all in a large turnout of citizens demands power lines be buried.

Hundreds of Wauwatosa and Milwaukee residents filled the chambers of the Common Council on Tuesday in hearings before the Wisconsin Public Service Commission, and almost to a single person their message was: "Bury the lines." In a debate that has gone on for more than a year, this was the last public part. The decision on exactly where two new 138,000-volt power lines will be routed, and whether all or parts of them will be overhead or underground, now rests with the PSC. That decision will come in March, as the members of the PSC, their lawyers and advisers, pore through reams of technical documents and testimony. Early this year, residents of the Fisher Woods and Underwood Creek Parkway neighborhoods, as well a neighborhood in …

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1:36 am on Saturday, April 13, 2013

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Last Chance to Speak Out on Power Lines

Two Public Service Commission hearing times Tuesday at City Hall are the last opportunities for the public to stand up and be heard on power line routes and configurations.

Residents Ready to Sound Off at Power Line Hearings

Preserve Our Parkway has put out the word and garnered more than 600 signatures on a petition to keep lines out of Underwood Creek area.

The public had a large say in informing the city on a course in the long-simmering debate over the route of a new power line through west Wauwatosa. The public input steered the Common Council and City Attorney Alan Kesner to draft an ordinance opposing overhead lines on any route, and to ask the Wisconsin Public Service Commission in hearings to select a specific all-underground route from Walnut Road and North 120th Street to the County Grounds. Now, it is the general public's turn again. The PSC will convene public hearings on the transmission line routes, and how they are to be installed, at 1 p.m. and 6 p.m. Tuesday in Council Chambers at City Hall. One group of citizens has been marshalling forces toward this day for months. Preserve…

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We Energies CEO Signs on to All-Buried Power Line Route

Gale Klappa's support for Wauwatosa's preference could be key to getting the PSC to nod to the city's wishes for no more overhead transmission lines.

Less than a week before the city is scheduled to begin presenting testimony before the Public Service Commission on a perferred route for a power line through west Wauwatosa, it has in hand the potent supporting document it has been hoping for. Gale Klappa, the CEO of We Energies, co-signed a letter with Mayor Kathy Ehley and Common Council President Dennis McBride concurring in an all-underground route from West 120th Street to the County Grounds. Klappa's support is seen as a powerful message to the PSC and possibly critical to persuading the commissioners to choose the city's preferred but more expensive route over one proposed by American Transmission Co., which will construct the line. In June, City Attorney Alan Kesner recommended …

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City Advances Walnut Road Power Line Route to PSC

After months of debate, issue is still contentious and council cannot come out with a unanimous voice, settling for an 11-4 decision.

Wauwatosa will join Milwaukee County and other parties in recommending an underground route that would run in part down residential Walnut Road for one of two new power lines to supply growing County Grounds institutions. On an 11-4, vote Tuesday night, the Common Council approved the selection as the preferred route to be presented to the Wisconsin Public Service Commission (PSC), which has final say on where the new routes will go and how they will be installed – above or below ground. The lines will be built by American Transmission Co. (ATC) for We Energies, supplier of the power. ATC, as the applicant, has already begun testimony before the PSC. Wauwatosa and other "intervenors" opposed to the installations being proposed by ATC will …

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Council Committee Approves Walnut Road Power Route

With panel ready to again delay a vote, Alds. Pantuso and McBride demand and get action as deadline for arguments in front of Public Service Commission looms.

After three months plus three final, brutal hours of debate, the Wauwatosa Community Development Committee voted 7-1 Tuesday to recommend an all-underground route down Walnut Road for a new power line to reach the County Grounds. That recommendation also carries a rider opposing any overhead lines along Underwood Creek Parkway, the other major proposal on the table. The decision, though – and that any decision was made at all – came down to the last hour. In one more presentation, City Attorney Alan Kesner reviewed the alternatives and repeated the need for a consensus on one preferred route – if the city were to show a preference at all. He also made it clear that the clock was ticking – the date for the city's testimony in front of the …

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H.E. Pennypacker

8:44 am on Friday, September 14, 2012

Nonsense Jim, the same folks who oppose overhead power lines will be howling and crying about any new construction of homes to increase our tax base. That is either a lie by you or wishful thinking, not based in facts.   more ›

City Hopes for We Energies' Support on Buried Lines

The utility CEO signed a letter supporting underground alternatives for a power line in a different location. But Wauwatosa must first choose its own preferred route before it can hope for backing from utility company, city attorney says.

If Wauwatosa can somehow come to grips with controversy and pick a preferred underground route from the west for a new power line to the County Grounds, it could win an important endorsement. It might be the most important endorsement it could possibly get — from We Energies, the utility that would sell the power carried on that line. We Energies CEO Gale Klappa signed a joint letter Aug. 2 with Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett and Ald. Michael Murphy in support of underground alternatives only for a second power line from the south through a Milwaukee neighborhood. The letter made no mention of any preference for any route for the western approach through Wauwatosa, underground or overhead. But that could be because Wauwatosa has not yet made …

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Delay Allows Tosa More Time to 'Tweak' Power Lines

Attorney Alan Kesner tells council that slowdown in the process offers a chance to improve an existing alternative but not time to go looking for new ones.

A two-month delay in the hearing process on power line routes will give Wauwatosa "more breathing room" to gather information, City Attorney Alan Kesner said. But he isn't counseling stretching the timeline to the new limit. Kesner told the Common Council on Tuesday night that it was not his wish or intention to open things up again for consideration of whole new alternative route proposals. Rather, he said, he, along with the city's legal and engineering advisers and expert witnesses, would be looking at "tweaks" to alternatives that have already been put on the table. The delay, in which Wauwatosa had no part, will allow time to explore modifications that might make a new western power route more palatable – if, in the end, the Wisconsin…

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Power Line Decision Put Off for Now

A 60-day delay in the state hearing process means that Wauwatosa has a little more breathing room to find a consensus decision on final route.

No decision on a recommended route for a new power line in west Wauwatosa will be taken Tuesday night, the city attorney said Monday. An unexpected 60-day delay in the hearing process before the Wisconsin Public Service Commission means that the city has until October to decide how to respond to the contentious issue, said City Attorney Alan Kesner. Kesner and some aldermen had been pushing for a consensus recommendation on a route down Walnut Road, opposed by most residents of that neighborhood. But the delay has given the city more time to consult with engineers about possible alternative routes or modifications to that route, Kesner said. With that, Tuesday night's hearing before a meeting of the Common Council's Committee of the Whole…

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Jim Price

8:39 am on Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Specifically, two more towers would be added nearer to Walnut Road at 120th St. under the current proposal. One existing transmission tower that is probably close to 100 feet tall – the one in the right foreground in the picture accompanying this story – would be replaced where it stands, with a new tower of about the same height. Then the 138k-volt line would be brought down from it to a new …   more ›