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Sunday, April 20, 2003

By Len Barcousky, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

FirstEnergy Corp. has agreed to shift part of the route for a 69,000-volt transmission line in Franklin Park, but the change will cost homeowners as well as the utility.

The owners of 10 homes in Northmont Farms have agreed to pay the utility $45,000 to cover most of the costs of moving the power line out of an existing easement that crossed through or near their properties and onto vacant land.

The payment will not cover all the costs for revising the route and acquiring land for a new right of way, a FirstEnergy spokesman said. "We've also put in many man-hours on redesign, negotiations and other back office work," spokesman Joe Mosbrook said.

The shift out of Northmont Farms, however, will not help another 20 or so residents in the nearby Bellwood Estates neighborhood, where homeowners and the utility were unable to reach a financial agreement with an adjoining property owner to move the line onto the owner's land.

So, the Bellwood area residents will have the utility line passing through their yards under the terms of an easement agreement approved more than 20 years ago.

The utility has owned rights to the land since 1979, but several residents have said they were told years ago that the utility would not build in that easement.

Mosbrook said the agreement with the Northmont residents to relocate the route of the line marks no change in FirstEnergy policy.

"We try to accommodate residents' wishes in any way we can," he said last week. "We often make changes in the design of projects in response to feedback we've gotten from neighbors."

Lally Kayser of Fairway Circle in the Bellwood area said she still had worries about the possible health risks from electric power lines.

FirstEnergy has said scientific studies have found no correlation between electromagnetic fields and health risks from such lines. Aerial maps of the project show houses 100 feet to 150 feet from the path of the cable.

"We're very disappointed that an alternative route could not be found," Kayser said. "This is going to devastate the neighborhood."

Another Fairway Circle resident said he was grateful for the utility's efforts to find an alternate route. "The power company has tried to work with us," Tom Martin said. "FirstEnergy went the extra mile to look at alternatives."

FirstEnergy, the parent of Penn Power, announced plans to install the $1.6 million transmission line in the fall, saying the booming demand for electricity in fast-growing Franklin Park made its installation a high priority. The line will follow a 1.7-mile route to link an existing substation on Brandt School Road and one proposed on Nicholson Road near Interstate 79.

Work is expected to begin by the end of this month. The line should be completed in time for the utility's peak-demand summer season, Mosbrook said. That's when use of air conditioners and other cooling devices pumps up demand for electricity. Such high demands have led to brownouts in the Penn Power service area.

The project calls for clearing trees from the 60-foot-wide easement and erecting 85-foot-tall wooden utility poles on which to string the transmission line. The company also can selectively remove any "hazard trees" outside the easement that could threaten the power line.

While Martin said he expected to lose many 100-year-old trees on his property, the utility's forester has agreed to "top" trees whenever possible outside the easement. Cutting the tops from the potential "hazard" trees would reduce danger to the new transmission line yet maintain part of the visual barrier, he said.