Larson requests underground utilities feedback

Commissioner Lynn Larson is trying to get as much input as possible from her constituents in Country Club Shores about their thoughts on burying underground utilities.

That’s because the Longboat Key Town Commission will review a presentation at its 7 p.m. Monday, June 1 regular meeting at Town Hall that reveals cost options for burying utilities both island-wide or just along Gulf of Mexico Drive.

Cost estimates, with both ad valorem and non ad valorem funds scenarios, show it will cost $42.1 million to bury power lines and utilities island-wide and $23.4 million to just bury utilities along Gulf of Mexico Drive.

Larson sent an email to residents in her neighborhood earlier this week, urging them to review the presentation on the town’s website, longboatkey.org.

“I need feedback for the meeting and emails to the commission supporting your position,” said Larson, noting that the community has approximately 500 of the 1,793 single family homes on the island that would need utilities buried.

Country Club Shores resident and new Planning and Zoning Board member Stephen Madva responded to Larson’s request in a May 28 email, calling the power lines “unsightly” and supporting the measure to bury the utilities.

Larson is also asking Town Manager Dave Bullock to move the utilities discussion and another discussion item on a fiber optic backbone component that will be part of the project, to the top of the agenda instead of at the end of the meeting.

And she’s hoping the town can develop a process in the future to get residents who are gone in the summer more involved from afar.

“I sincerely hope that we will develop a process so that we may have interaction with residents by email questions and comments during the meetings or participation by Skype,” Larson said.

Contact Kurt Schultheis at [email protected].