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Commissioner Jacobs made reference to the criticism of the tree protection ordinances <br />and asked if this was Duke Power's position. Scott Gardner said that trees are beautiful things and <br />we all love them, but there are places where they do not work well. Duke Power had 30-foot <br />easements and then tree ordinances came on the scene. They tried to work with municipalities, but <br />they had to give up the 30-foot rights-of-way. As people have worked harder to protect trees, the <br />liability numbers have gone dawn. They have tried to get back the 30-foot right-of-way. Regarding <br />this storm, they think that the restoration work went quicker with cleaner rights-of-ways. <br />Commissioner Jacobs asked how a citizen would make a comment to Duke Power. Scott <br />Gardner said that they can write a letter with their bill, they can call the customer contact center, and <br />they can write to the North Carolina Utilities Commission. Duke Power has also asked EMS Directors <br />to provide feedback from their counties. They will be providing a report from the evaluation and what <br />changes are going to be made. <br />Commissioner Gordon asked about the list of priorities and where commercial centers fit <br />in. Scott Gardner said that this is included in the backbone feeders. The backbone feeders are <br />usually connected to the commercial centers. <br />Commissioner Gordon asked Scott Gardner about his opinion about underground lines. <br />Scott Gardner said that 80% of their lines put in last year were underground. The bottom line is that it <br />is very expensive if it is done for everything. The lines would be encased in concrete. <br />Commissioner Gordon asked about the threat of terrorist activity and if the restoration plan <br />would change if the utility would have to rely an its awn personnel. Scott Gardner said that each utility <br />would be on its own if the activity were widespread. <br />Commissioner Gordon would like to see how they would handle widespread outages like <br />terrorism. <br />Commissioner Carey made reference to the underground lines issue and said that he <br />heard from the Utilities Chairman that this would not be likely. He said that he knows that some of the <br />repaired lines appear to be temporary and asked when these would be fixed. Scott Gardner said that <br />if they are low hanging lines, they might be cable or phone lines. All of the electrical lines should be <br />fixed at this time. <br />Chair Brown said that it seems that Duke Power is saying that a lot of outages could have <br />been caused by trees and that Duke Power was prevented from cutting from tree ordinances. Scott <br />Gardner said that they are not convinced that they would not have had the same amount of outages <br />without the trees, but the restoration effort would have gone quicker without the trees. <br />Chair Brown said that to attribute slow restoration of power to "tree huggers" is not the way <br />to go. Scott Gardner said that they backed away from what they should have been doing because <br />they were trying to be customer friendly. <br />Chair Brown suggested going back to trimming and working with the municipalities on <br />Duke Power's right-of-way policies. She said that some trees have been cut previously that would not <br />have hit a power line even if they did fall. Scott Gardner said that they want to work with <br />municipalities to do trimming work properly. <br />Richard Mabbot with Piedmont Electric said that they have 14,000 customers and all lost <br />power. By the end of the day on December 10th they had power restored. He gave a brief history of <br />Piedmont Electric. They work closely with other co-ops in the State for restoration projects. <br />Restoration and communication are the two main paints of a disaster such as this. During outage <br />they took calls through automation and live operators. They personally answered over 10,000 phone <br />calls. He said that they are continuing to work on pole restoration and they are making repairs. They <br />also have additional tree contractors removing dangerous trees. Regarding preparation for right-of- <br />way clearing, Piedmont is on a three-year re-clearing schedule. They also have a 30-foot right-of- <br />way. He thanked the County and EMS for their support as well as the customers far their patience. <br />He said that the challenges were bringing in an army of linemen and housing and feeding them. <br />