New proposed route for transmission line

By Lynda C. Berg

Dan Olesen of Northwestern Wisconsin Electric attended the regular meeting of the Centuria Village Board Monday night seeking approval for a new proposed route for a transmission line through the village’s sewer plant. The line will ultimately service a new substation.

“We have made application to the PSC (Public Service Commission) on two proposed routes to come into the village,” Olesen began. “One went down 180th Street and down to 170th Avenue and over to the substation location; and the other one was along Highway 35 to come to First and then into the village from the north and then east to the substation location.”
Of note, the new substation will be located in the village’s Industrial Park at the far east end - on the other side of the ravine.

Olesen said the PSC has asked Northwestern to look for another route and to that end he distributed topographical maps of the new route for the board’s perusal.
“The proposed route would come across country from 180th Avenue coming down the property line between Hanjo and Turner Farms and into the sewer location…
“We are looking for permission and an easement to do that. The Public Service Commission has not approved the other two routes that we have proposed, so this is another possibility.”

Olesen noted that cost-wise, this route saves the electric company money since they would not have to go along Highway 35.
Obviously, the board could only grant approval for the portion of village-owned land.
“We hope to do this within two years,” stated Olesen. “We had hoped to get this started by this fall, but that is not going to happen.”
Trustee Dave Markert asked if the substation was going to be built regardless of the status involved with the fledgling firm High Quality Shavings, who have identified a large need for more power.
“The substation will be built regardless, yes,” answered Olesen. “They probably accelerated our timeframe of building the substation by a year or two. This should be beneficial since they may be more apt to complete their project once we get our substation built. There were some costs involved from us that they kind of balked at.”

The village was the starting point for Northwestern in terms of gaining permission for the proposed route.
“We have to start somewhere,” commented Olesen.
Another question trustees had was whether or not the transmission line would impact cell phone towers or reception.
Olesen indicated quite the contrary saying that some lines in the cities even have cell towers on the poles.
Trustee Markert made the motion to approve the (village’s portion of) route, which was unanimously carried.