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We pay enough for electricity, the company should have started 40 yrs ago to bury the power lines. It makes no sense to continue to use the same wooden stick poles with large canisters on them, all over the place. It's an eye sore, its problematic, and every time the wind blows we have power outages affecting 1000's.
This might have worked at the beginning of the 20th Century, or even back in the 1800's, but today it is outdated and utterly insane that they don't have an ongoing campaign and program to bury these lines in secure channels under the ground.
The weather today is continually worst than it has ever been in the past. But we have the same group of greed masters running these companies, who can't think beyond how they an increase their pay and reduce service stability to the customers.
America has mis-eduated people for 60 years, teaching them to pursue greed, status and public hype, more than they have taught them to be innovative and focus on improving public service and service stability.
It may take the kids who are now in grade school to usher in a ethical based educated society, and one that respect the public trust position afford them.
Now we have nothing but a mass of slickers who circumvent conversation with some collusive spreadsheets and pomp and pageantry of executives who's main training is how to dupe the people and hoodwink them to accept something which is utterly outdated. None of them can get up and make a honest presentation and discuss real time issues. They have a pre-set script and their speech writers are mandated to come up with dialog which skirts the issue and defeats the need to make changes. Their only concern is to protect their paychecks. It will take a Federal Mandate to make them stand up and act!!!!!
Poles will continue to break, under wind, ice, tornado winds, hurricane forces and vines growing on them until they sag and touch each other.
Today, the electric company does not actively go out and trim trees in all the areas where the limbs in-tangle within the power lines.
It's a continual recipe for disaster, all it awaits is for the wind to blow. It's sad to say, but eventually terrorist will figure it as a way to cripple the nation, cities and regions by direct assault upon the antiquated power grid as it exist in its current form. Then and only then, will the executive be forced to awaken and get off their greed mission learn to think in constructive terms and come up with a plan to bury and secure these lines. That's how backwards as a nation we have become to function.. acting only after disaster kicks us in the butt.
When we talk about jobs, this is a job creation program, and is a plus benefit in every respect for a society groomed and designed to rely on stability in the electrical grid system. We need to think in terms of Modernization "NOW".
Last edited by Chance and Change; 05-26-2015 at 04:46 PM..
Why don't you guys lobby to fix your ****ty roads, first. Then worry about things that look bad and cause inconvenience SOMETIMES instead of broken suspensions and messed up alignments ALL THE TIME.
Yes, for certain there is massive roadway work needed, not just in Shreveport, but Louisiana as a whole. We simply don't have state level administrators who push this as a high priority agenda items. Over the years, HUD funds have been slashed, and we simply have not had politicians who know how to push for infrastructure items. Jindal, was so busy being "Anti-Obama" until he denied and then squandered any Federal Monies, because he was determined to ensure lacklustre or no progress could be attributed to the Obama Administration. As a result he set back Louisiana more than a decades with his pursuit of "Right Wing Poster Boy Pursuits". ( the same reality is many of those Hard Core Right Wingers will dis him the minute he's not in office, because he does not fit their profile nor their ethic groups core make up, he will never break through that barrier on some levels, but he does not grasp nor understand it> He pushes for what ever he thinks makes him acceptable, when even some of the Right Winger are not as radical in overt bias and bigotry as what Jindal has displayed)
If and As Leadership matters, The cities of Louisiana has not had a Governor in Jindal who can set a tone for growth nor progress; he has been too busy trying to dismantle anything and everything which helps the poor and the working poor, along with insulting our young people with criminal cuts to education. Beyond that he was obsessed with trying to be the Republican Golden Boy, which meant he spent too much time running to other states, when it had nothing to do with improving Louisiana's welfare of benefit to this state.
Roads has been an issue, but equally so, Louisiana has to look down the road to the future. Our power grid is a disaster, many areas the poles are so old and leaning, which should have long been a program to modernize and bury these wires.
We have Sewer system currently under repair, but how many other cities have old worn water and sewer systems.
Our water drainage needs have long past exceeded the need for trenches and ditches along our roadway, we need actual drainage systems.
These things not only means jobs, but it means the people have to support the bonds to move us forward to become a city capable of sustaining itself in the 21st Century.
How do we get there, surely is a question with many points of commentary> Will we get there is a mixed bag of many questions; under the current idelogical mindset of apathy, non engagning entities, and conscedending demeanors, it will make it difficult for any progress to be made.
We have a system of clergy who tries to influence many things for their own individual agenda, rather than a collective purpose, along with people in position who are determined to maintain the status quo, to protect their paychecks, rather than to become innovative and pro-active from a base of self motivation.
It may take Consent Decrees of many sorts to get things done, but that is unlikely to happen if it exist outside of Environmental Concerns.
Economic Development is under attack, is this the same organization Jindal tried to privatize??????? Now just how insidious is that????
Some cities don't have economic development, nor do they know what needs to be done to be a functional economic development organization?
What people have to grasp, is - fixing the infrasture is a multi element matter that requires focused colloboration among the various entitities of utility organizations. Unfortunately, we simply don't have that type of cohesion among the entities of utility provisioners.
We pay enough for electricity, the company should have started 40 yrs ago to bury the power lines. It makes no sense to continue to use the same wooden stick poles with large canisters on them, all over the place. It's an eye sore, its problematic, and every time the wind blows we have power outages affecting 1000's.
This might have worked at the beginning of the 20th Century, or even back in the 1800's, but today it is outdated and utterly insane that they don't have an ongoing campaign and program to bury these lines in secure channels under the ground.
The weather today is continually worst than it has ever been in the past. But we have the same group of greed masters running these companies, who can't think beyond how they an increase their pay and reduce service stability to the customers.
America has mis-eduated people for 60 years, teaching them to pursue greed, status and public hype, more than they have taught them to be innovative and focus on improving public service and service stability.
It may take the kids who are now in grade school to usher in a ethical based educated society, and one that respect the public trust position afford them.
Now we have nothing but a mass of slickers who circumvent conversation with some collusive spreadsheets and pomp and pageantry of executives who's main training is how to dupe the people and hoodwink them to accept something which is utterly outdated. None of them can get up and make a honest presentation and discuss real time issues. They have a pre-set script and their speech writers are mandated to come up with dialog which skirts the issue and defeats the need to make changes. Their only concern is to protect their paychecks. It will take a Federal Mandate to make them stand up and act!!!!!
Poles will continue to break, under wind, ice, tornado winds, hurricane forces and vines growing on them until they sag and touch each other.
Today, the electric company does not actively go out and trim trees in all the areas where the limbs in-tangle within the power lines.
It's a continual recipe for disaster, all it awaits is for the wind to blow. It's sad to say, but eventually terrorist will figure it as a way to cripple the nation, cities and regions by direct assault upon the antiquated power grid as it exist in its current form. Then and only then, will the executive be forced to awaken and get off their greed mission learn to think in constructive terms and come up with a plan to bury and secure these lines. That's how backwards as a nation we have become to function.. acting only after disaster kicks us in the butt.
When we talk about jobs, this is a job creation program, and is a plus benefit in every respect for a society groomed and designed to rely on stability in the electrical grid system. We need to think in terms of Modernization "NOW".
Most new residential electric and data/ phone is now installed underground because it is the most cost effective way to provide service for new developing areas.
When the first electric lines were installed outside the cities there were not enough customers to justify underground service so overhead was installed and a drop was installed as new houses were built.
I doubt that most customers would be willing to pay for the retrofit of underground service in overhead areas.
When I was a contractor it was rare for a customer who was willing to pay me for underground service when the utility company provided a free service drop.
I am sure if your utility co. told you that they were going to asses you for the cost of burying your utility services you would be complaining about that.
Depending on what they said the cost would be, Most Capital Projects as such would for a Utility Company,would be spread over 25 yrs or more, because of the enormity of the project. They probably have many Federal and State Subsdies to assist the Utility Company, of which we the general public are not familiar with. With the volume and expanse of the Utility Commission, the Company Lobbyist, they'd find a way to squeeze every penny they can to avoid direct cost to the Provider Company. There's probably technology out there, which can greatly reduce the cost of transmission of power, but unless there is pressure to implement such, there will be backlash from the power companies.
I think its great that NEW Communities require this, It's inevitable that the US will find the despaired need to upgrade its system. We are still with many systems that were designed in early 1900's, which are extremely inferior.
Step One is to get rid of the old administration in the Utility Companies, and get visionary people in these positions. then disband the Utility Commission and bring in New Members and tie them to responsibilities for progress and community upgrades.
These stuck in yesterday types, who have become too bloated on their own clout, are the culprits. They will defeat anything to hold on to their over paid positions for what they actually do.
Here it is 8 yrs later. Our last storm left close to a hundred thousand people, in Caddo parish, without power for a week. This happens, not quite on this scale, dozens of times a yr. Are there talks of putting power lines underground? Seems it's got to be expensive repairing all the lines over and over. Most repair are done by contractors from out of state. I'm no expert in this field, but I have construction experience that tells me it's probably cheaper, in fact I would be willing to say putting power lines underground would in short time pay for its self. Not just the cost in repairing lines. But cost of life, cost of every store in the area throwing out every cold storage product, cost of every homeowner throwing out cold storage foods. I'm sure there are more cost associated with power outages. Most of the outages are caused by outdated power grids hanging on wooden poles in the air. And after they fail, they are replaced just as they were. Am I the only one who thinks this is not too smart. Seems this topic could more intelligently discussed by whoever the expert, in this area of government. Seems there should be serious talks about this problem. It's preventable, so why arn't we moving in that direction?
In true Shreveport/Louisiana fashion , nothing will be done. Everything from the power company to city government to state government. It is a fine idea to go underground with utilities but they will just keep installing the same old cheesy wooden pole crap. I can't begin to tell you how many poles I saw Friday morning that were split in half from the wind. But instead of solving the problem, they will just wring their hands and say "woe is me"
This is one glaring reason why Shreveport is like it is.
Take a look at the cost of burying line vs overhead line. In my area in the northern plains of the US, almost all of the new neighborhoods have buried everything. But at an annual meeting of our electric coop, someone asked why more line was not buried. It was like 3 - 10x more expensive. I'm sure it's pretty expensive to pull down and bury the lines, so I don't see it done around here, but they also replace a lot of overhead line annually that is too old. But the higher voltage line around here is usually above ground, so if something bad (tornadoes, blizzards, ice) happens, those lines can go down anyway.
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