The city commission just approved an average 8% increase effective April 1 for all residential electric customers for the foreseeable future. They did this to pay to underground those private residential electric service lines on private property not already undergrounded.
Every residential customer is to pay the added fee, including renters, low income housing residents, and the roughly 65% of residential electric customers who already paid to have their service line undergrounded. The annual increase in the average electric bill will be about $170.00.
If your residence already has its local service line undergrounded, you will be paying again to benefit those who have not yet undergrounded their service line.
Click here to tell the city commission to REVERSE COURSE.
The fee increase is unfair and unneeded. At least since the 1980s, nearly every residence renovated or replaced in Winter Park must have its service line undergrounded at the property owner’s expense. That is largely why we already have about 65% of residential service lines undergrounded. Properties with overhead service lines will eventually underground at the owners expense, not your expense, after this fee is reversed.
Why force the issue and require 65% of residential electric customers to pay again to underground service lines that are not their responsibility? There is no valid reason, yet our impatient, spend thrift commission wants it done. It is time push back. Tell the city commission to REVERSE COURSE on the added electric fee.
This is purely a vanity project as there are no reliability or safety issues impacting neighboring properties when leaving private service lines above ground. Per the city’s Director of Electric Utilities, “A service line failure from the pole to the house, whether under ground or overhead will not affect the surrounding power grid.”
- If you renovated your home you already paid to have your electric service line undergrounded.
- If you built a new home you already paid to have your electric service line undergrounded.
- If you bought a home with service lines already undergrounded, you already paid for that in the price of the home.
- If you rent, you are going to be paying to underground electric service lines for people living in million dollar homes.
Nothing about this makes any sense.
Tell the city commission you should not pay TWICE and to kill the fee!
Are all of these government workers Denocrats? Sound it
Watch out Winter Park
A few years ago when our block was undergrounded my next door neighbor chose not to do it. I asked utility director D’Alessandro what was the plan for those who opted out. He got peeved and said, “we’ll get them sooner or later”. I was surprised at his tone. Now, my neighbor is getting it done with my financial help. Why? Leave me alone and charge him.
Our utilities were underground in 1997. Since then, we requested that the City rebrick our street. The City took a survey of the street and did re-lay brick but ONLY where most neighbors voted “yes” and we had to pay for it. In this case, the City is mandating something we did not even get to discuss. There are other ways to accomplish total undergrounding. The people that will be hurt the most are the seniors, the renters (not land owners), and those that are already struggling to survive in today’s world. Low income families are being pushed out and that is WRONG!