Sinking Spring residents vow to oppose PP&L power line

by Steve Reinbrecht

About 80 people sat or stood in Sinking Spring Borough Hall on Thursday to hear about PP&L’s plans to run a 69-kilovolt line through the borough and, officials say, fatally disrupt plans to improve traffic and shopping opportunities.

Appearing aghast, planner Sam Loth told the crowd that the electric company’s plans would flush eight years of work and $6 million of tax investment down the toilet.

Residents asked questions and vowed to fight the utility’s plans.

Borough Manager Michael Hart said he invited PP&L officials, who declined to come and said that they would arrange a meeting with residents. PP&L, based in Allentown, has about 10 million customers and saw $7.7 billion in revenues last year. 

In what they call BOSS2020, borough leaders have made plans to improve two bottle-neck intersections on Penn Avenue and make room for a downtown business district.

Residents and drivers will soon see concrete signs of the project, Loth said.
Crews will demolish the former Lesher auto repair shop at the sharp corner of Cacoosing Avenue and Penn Avenue, and the former borough hall at the even sharper corner of Penn Avenue and Columbia Avenue. Then the intersection will be transformed into a normal 90-degree-angle type of intersection.

The plan is to eventually straighten the octopus-like Penn Avenue-Hull Road-Route 724 intersection and shift eastbound traffic heading to Shillington onto Columbia Avenue.

The borough has acquired the necessary commercial properties and plans to acquire about 16 residential properties, Loth said.

The power company would clear a right-of-way, perhaps 100 feet wide, Loth said.

At the meeting, resident Jan Roland said she is organizing opposition to the PP&L plan. The power line would loom over homes and playgrounds and be unsightly, especially because existing utilities are buried, she said. Residents are worried about reduced property values, purported health issues from living near high voltage, possible sinkholes, toppling towers and major disruption to the borough’s development plans.

Loth said PP&L only needs the line as a backup.

“It’s not something they even need right now,” he said.

Borough officials said state Rep. Jim Cox and state Sen. David Argall support the project and have a stake in it because they have obtained state funding, Loth said.

This week, the state announced a $1.1 million grant for work on Columbia Avenue.

In any case, the PP&L project would need approval by the state Public Utility Commission, and there are formal and informal ways to object, said solicitor Charles Haws.

Poles that carry 69 kilovolts are typically wooden and 50 to 70 feet tall. The cleared right-of-way is typically 70-100 feet wide, accordingto the Minnesota Electric Transmission Planning.

The line would cross Penn Avenue cross Penn Street between Autozone and Paparone’s pizza shop, according to a map from PP&L.

PP&L spokesman Joe Nixon said earlier that the company has been in regular contact with the borough throughout the project.

The company thoroughly evaluated other routes for the line and concluded this route has the least impact on the “natural and human environment” and lowest financial impact on ratepayers, according to Nixon.

Company officials plan to continue to discuss the project with representatives from the borough, Nixon wrote in an e-mail in response to my questions.