Power Line Solution is Costly

If residents are dissatisfied with the big, rusty electric poles along Coleman Boulevard, they may just have to learn to deal with them.

A meeting on Tuesday to discuss options for the new, but unsightly poles, revealed it would cost $300,000 to shave 10 feet off the poles
and to replace the current rusty-metal versions with shiny galvanized steel varieties.

“My thought it that it’s pretty expensive and that no one will notice that sort of difference,” said Coucilwoman Linda Page.

The city could dip into a match fund with power company SCE&G to fund lowering the poles, so the project would only cost the city $150,000, Page said.

Business owners along Coleman Boulevard have complained about the towering poles since they were installed roughly six months ago. At 95 feet tall, the lines hulk over Coleman and block out some business signage.

SCE&G met with the town and business owners on Tuesday to discuss options.

“We left agreeing that we were going to have to live with the poles,” said Councilman Elton Carrier. “But we have asked SCE&G to find ways to make them less obnoxious.”

Carrier, who chairs the finance committee tasked with the pole problem, said he’d like to see the poles painted green or some other more appealing color. And plants and perhaps moving business signs could make the poles less obtrusive.

Putting the power lines underground, however, is not an option. That would cost at least $5 million and require acquisition of land to bury the lines. Carrier and other town leaders have said SCE&G schematics for the poles did not accurately depict their size and scale.

“I think after a while, if there is some vegetation, those poles won’t look as bad,” Page said.

The poles are the main power source from Charleston into Mount Pleasant.

“You got to live with these poles,” Carrier said. “We don’t like to look at them, but we all like to see the lights come on and to hear the air conditioning running.”