By Kellen Olshefski
Correspondent
The City of Elkhorn Common Council voted 5-0 at its April 7 meeting in favor of a reimbursement agreement with the American Transmission Company, LLC, to cover the cost of burying a selection of its electrical transmission lines.
In a memo, Elkhorn Electric Superintendent BZ Kayser informed the council that ATC is rewiring its transmission line from Lake Geneva to Elkhorn, a line which runs along Highway 67.
Kayser said Elkhorn’s electric utility shares the space on the poles, and as part of the rewiring project, ATC has requested the city remove its lines from ATC’s poles and bury them underground, something which he said would be a great upgrade to the city’s electrical system.
The plan, Kayser wrote, would be to bury the city’s electric lines from the Lincoln Street Station to the Kunes dealership on O’Connor Drive. While the cost of completing the work would be around $900,000 and the city would be responsible for purchasing material, installing the underground lines and removing the overhead system, he said the ATC is willing to reimburse the city for the work. The agreement in the council packet noted ATC shall reimburse Elkhorn for the actual, total amount charged to Elkhorn for the completion of the work, with the referenced estimate in Exhibit B also including labor.
According to Kayser, ATC is upgrading its systems throughout Wisconsin and the Midwest to be able to provide more electricity to the area, which will ultimately be a major benefit for the city. He noted that this project will allow the city to update its 35-year-old system at ATC’s cost, that ATC will be providing the city with more power, something that could attract data centers and more customers that demand high levels of megawatts, and that this work would also help with the Creekside project and new signaled intersection planned at S. Lincoln Street and Deere Road.
A motion to approve the agreement by Alderman Gary Lee Payson Jr., seconded by Alderman Peter Harvey, was passed unanimously.
For more from the council meeting, please see the print edition of the Elkhorn Independent.
