By Jason W. Brooks | YourValley
PHOENIX — A lengthy hearing at Wednesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting led the board to postpone a hearing about a Salt River Project petition to move overhead power lines underground.
After a 40-minute discussion involving a resident of a county island in the Arcadia area of Phoenix, neighbors, representatives of neighbors and several SRP staff, the board decided to reschedule the hearing.
Dave Sinovic, a resident of the 6400 block of Exeter Boulevard, said SRP told him it would have to take down a block wall and mature landscaping on his property, dig up ground, bury a line, and charge him about $37,000.
Also, Sinovic won’t benefit, as he receives power from lines that run in from the south.
“Aesthetically, sure, I guess it’s an improvement,” Sinovic said. “I would like to be excluded because I get my power from 150 feet to the south. Just go ahead with your petition and leave me out of it.”
Virginia O’Malley, an attorney for SRP, says the utility is “completely neutral and agnostic” on petitions initiated by customers.
She said neighbors got together sometime in late summer or early fall 2021 and petitioned to form an underground conversion district.
