MEA board fires volley at Wasilla in power line debate

WASILLA — Frustrated over what it calls “stall tactics” by the city of Wasilla, the Matanuska Electric Association Board of Directors has passed a lengthy resolution protesting the city’s opposition to the electric cooperative’s planned route for an upgrade to its power lines.

After the Wasilla Planning Commission failed to vote on MEA’s proposal to upgrade power lines from Mat-Su Regional Medical Center to its Herning substation, the board passed a resolution Monday objecting “to the Wasilla Planning Commission’s continuances of the public hearing and authorizing and suggesting further public meetings, workshops and reviews on the application.”

The board resolution came nearly three weeks after a Wasilla planning commission meeting where no vote was taken on MEA’s application to upgrade the power lines, which include three miles of line along the Parks Highway in city limits.

City officials have argued those upgrades, which include replacing existing 45-foot power poles with 80- to 100-foot towers, would destroy the viewshed of the area and lower the value of prime highway real estate.

City staff and the planning commission have said they believe more discussion between the city and MEA can result in a compromise.

“We’re not saying, ‘MEA, don’t bring us power,’ but we have to be very, very careful,” planning commission chair Daniel Kelly Jr. said during a May 21 meeting. That came on the heels of a marathon May 14 meeting that included lengthy public testimony about MEA’s application.

With numerous other public meetings about the planned upgrades and two planning commission meetings, MEA wants a decision on its application, the board resolution states. It also alleges failure to give MEA an answer — yes or no — are “unwarranted actions” that “force unreasonable delay upon the application.”

Prior to the May 14 planning commission meeting, MEA General Manager Joe Griffith said the co-op is acting in the most fiscally responsible way for its members. He also said that if the planning commission denies the application, MEA can appeal and if that application is denied on appeal, court could be the next step.

As a legal monopoly, MEA operates under a “Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity,” which is governed by the Regulatory Commission of Alaska. If the utility does not pursue the least-cost option to the fullest extent, MEA spokesman Kevin Brown said it would be very difficult for the co-op to justify to the members and to the courts in any lawsuit that might be raised by residents and business owners along any other route MEA might select instead.

The MEA resolution also notes that according to Wasilla Municipal Code, the timeline to review and respond to the application has “expired without a decision by the city.” Brown said the goal is to get the planning commission to vote yes or no on the application so the process can move forward, one way or the other.

“We don’t want to even consider this a prelude to legal action,” he said.

The next opportunity to vote on the application will come at the commission’s July 9 meeting, Brown said. While the city wants more public meetings and discussion, there have been 10 such meetings already, he said.

“Our goal, honestly, is to get the planning commission back to the table to vote on the issue at hand,” he said. “If they want us to undertake another route, that may be something we have to consider.”

In the mean time, “our level of disappointment and frustration continues to ratchet up,” Brown said. And although MEA says it doesn’t want to ask a court to resolve the question over the power line’s route, at this point he said it seems highly likely that the courts will be involved.

Before that can be considered though, Brown said MEA needs a yes or no vote on its application and, if the answer is no, an appeal would be the next step. Without a vote on the application, the process is stalled, he said.

Wasilla Mayor Verne Rupright didn’t return several phone calls seeking comment on the MEA resolution, but in the past he has said the city wants to relocate the large towers away from the main highway corridor. It’s a compromise Rupright said he thought MEA was open to at one point.

“We had our discussions with them back in November and thought they were OK (with an alternative route),” Rupright said prior to the May 14 planning commission meeting. “Now, it’s coming up to the wire and they’re asking us to sit down (again). If you can find a little less imposing alternative, I’m willing to work with that.”

MEA says it has examined multiple alternatives. The least expensive is the preferred plan, which would cost about $9.75 million. Rerouting to behind some of the Parks Highway properties would cost about $13.4 million, while routes that use Bogard Road and Cottle/Fairview Loop respectively would run $14.9 million and $13.9 million. Another option, to bury the lines, would cost nearly $40 million, according to MEA estimates.

Rupright said he’s skeptical about some of those cost estimates, especially the estimated cost to bury the lines.

“Show me the numbers,” he said. “Show me the studies, show me the evidence of that. … When somebody tells me there’s only one alternative, for some reason I have a little bit of doubt.”

Contact Greg Johnson at 352-2269 or greg.johnson@frontiersman.com.