Bury Power Lines Along Existing Corridor

Commissioners deserve praise for action.
If you let somebody cut through your yard, they should show the utmost respect to your property - not blight it and create a hazardous nuisance.
But that's what Progress Energy is planning to do in Hernando County.
Progress Energy, which is building a $17 billion - that's with a "b" - nuclear power plant near the Gulf of Mexico in Levy County, would need to extend about 200 miles of power lines south to help feed the burgeoning demand for power in this region's 10 fastest grown counties.
Naturally, Progress Energy would like to do that in the cheapest way possible, especially considering that the utility company has only a handful of customers in Hernando County and its spending so much in Levy County.
That means running those nasty hissing and humming power lines along massively grotesque 165-foot tall steel poles or - even uglier - H-frame steel structures that tower overhead at 120 feet.
It's much cheaper than burying them along existing transmission corridors.
These hideous towers, spaced in 700- to 1,300-foot intervals, would cut a swath through Hernando County the likes of Genghis Kahn through Asia.
OK, that may be an exaggeration, but you get the point.
The company wants to run these transmission lines along one of three, one-mile wide study areas that include an existing transmission line corridor partially along Sunshine Grove Road, the Suncoast Parkway and one closer to U.S. 19.
Thanks, but no thanks.
What would we call it: The Suncoast Blightway?
Air traffic at the Hernando County Airport would love dodging those towers.
Ooops!
You wouldn't let a stranger camp out in your front yard and hang his dirty laundry next to the sidewalk, would you?
Enter the Hernando County Commission.
While commissioners have come under fire in recent months for out-of-control taxing, spending and dodging practices, they deserve a round of applause for the action they took Tuesday demanding that Progress Energy bury any new transmission lines along existing utility corridors in Hernando County.
Out of sight, out of mind, the old saying goes.
Nobody wants these nasty transmission lines strung along their back yard, and our commissioners need to stand firm on this issue with Progress Energy.
Commissioner Dave Russell said it best: "I believe it's important that we're clear in our message that we won't settle for second best, that we want the best technology to be available here in Hernando. My gosh, we're basically being used as a conduit to supply power to other areas, so why should we settle for less?"
If commissioners continue to fight the good fight, we won't.
But what if Progress Energy tries to ignore Hernando County's demands?
Commissioner Jeff Stabins said commissioners would take their case to Gov. Charlie Crist and his cabinet for help.
They'd have thousands of Hernando Countians marching with them to Tallahassee.
While commissioners may be grandstanding on this issue, we hope they continue.
The quality of life of Hernando County is at stake.