STORY TOOLS

• E-mail story
• Comments
• iPod friendly
• Printer friendly

RELATED STORIES

• Committee on electric company takeover gets new chairman
• Marco committee on electricity has robust membership
• Happy LCEC customers in Marco speak out against city-owned electricity services
• Marco officials ponder starting own power company
• Marco leaders want to look at city-run electricity

Related Links

• Read the May 22, 2007 consultant's report on undergrounding Marco Island's power lines (.pdf)

More Local News

• Water restrictions may become permanent
• Farmworkers’ children get chance to tackle new skill -- fishing
• Enhancing knowledge: 3 TBE teachers receive Professional Development Grants

Share and Enjoy [?]

Expect electricity at the City of Marco Island’s enterprise fund budget meeting Monday.

City council will discuss a pilot program that, if approved, will bid out contracts for laying some of the island’s power lines underground. But that discussion could be overshadowed by what appears to be tension between the city and its electricity provider, Lee County Electric Cooperative (LCEC) and continuing chatter about a city-takeover of electric services.

The fundamental disconnect between the city and LCEC is each side’s estimate to put the city’s lines underground. The city, based on a consultant’s report from last May, thinks the project will cost about $200,000 per mile, for a total of $16 million. LCEC’s believes the project will cost $30 million, nearly three times what city officials had originally believed would be the price.

Friction between the city and LCEC is clear even from the staff report compiled by City Public Works Director Rony Joel. It discusses the history of the city’s attempt to lay LCEC’s power lines underground since 2004 when council instituted a 5 percent franchise fee on residents’ electric bills for that purpose.

In the report, LCEC was criticized repeatedly for not providing information to the city and a portion of the company’s cost estimate was labeled “exorbitant.”

Council chairman Bill Trotter along with Joel and former City Councilman John Arceri, a retired executive from a New York electric utility, have been negotiating with LCEC for three months. Trotter said the report’s tone likely reflected staff frustration with the company.

“Part of the frustration has been the cost estimates that keep going up,” Trotter said.

And that’s leading to some tough talk, including on-going speculation about municipalizing the electric services.

Councilman Wayne Waldack, who has said he is intrigued by the idea of a city takeover, called the relationship between the city and LCEC “strained.”

“I think that Marco Island might be their cash cow, and I don’t think they’re treating the cow very well,” Waldack said.

“If we could get a better relationship with LCEC, then the idea of municipal power and things like that will disappear,” he added. “If LCEC wants to continue on that path, then it could be that we’d be looking at other options.”

Although Trotter did not expect municipalization to come up during Monday’s meeting, he said a feasibility study on the matter would be on the agenda at a June workshop as part of a host of alternative revenue generating ideas to decrease city reliance on property taxes.

Some expressed surprise at the report and on-going municipalization references.

Councilman Chuck Kiester said he feels out of the loop on issues related to the electric utility, and all his knowledge comes from reading the newspaper and the report.

“It almost sounds like they’re trying to make an argument for condemning and taking over the electrical system,” Kiester said.

Asked what he thought about the city’s current relationship with LCEC, Kiester replied: “I have no idea.”

For its part, LCEC appears caught off guard by the chatter, too.

LCEC spokeswoman Karen Ryan said she was startled by the report’s tone and some of its content. She said LCEC was cooperating with the city on the underground project, referencing numerous meetings and the company’s providing the city with documentation and design plans.

“A lot of the things in here we had never heard before and we were surprised about,” Ryan said.

And that’s without mentioning councilors’ references to municipalization, which doesn’t appear in the report. Ryan added that the company hasn’t spoken to any city official who expressed support for that idea.

The company plans to have a gaggle of representatives on hand at Monday’s meeting, including an engineer, to observe and answer questions if needed.

The only decision likely made on Monday would be whether to go out to bid for a pilot program that would place 4.6 miles of electric wires underground in the Barbados area off North Barfield Drive. If the bids come in at the city’s estimate of around $200,000 per mile, then the pilot would likely go forward. If they come in at LCEC’s higher estimate, then it wouldn’t, the report and city councilors said.

LCEC officials are anxious for the results.

“It will be interesting to see if they find someone less expensive, how they do and how the project turns out,” Ryan said.

Discussion on the electric franchise fee fund is just one of four budget items to be addressed Monday. The workshop meeting will also discuss the city’s building services fund, recreation enterprise funds and water/sewer utility fund. All these items are self-funded and outside the city’s charter-mandated spending cap on general fund revenues. The major proposed change for the next fiscal year is to make the city’s racquet center self-sufficient based on user fees and the solicitation corporate sponsorships. The meeting starts at 8:30 a.m. in the community room of the city police building.