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SMECO poles overshadow annual meeting
New board elected
Friday, Sept. 3, 2010
 Click here to enlarge this photo Staff photos by ERICA MITRANO
Julie Gadway holds signs at SMECO's annual meeting protesting the erection of high-voltage power lines within sight of her Huntingtown home. The 75-foot steel poles have angered residents and members of the Calvert County Board of County Commissioners, and SMECO has vowed to consider alternatives.
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New utility poles in Huntingtown were the hot topic at this year's meeting of the Southern Maryland Electric Cooperative, held at Regency Furniture Stadium in Waldorf. Residents have already complained to the Calvert County Board of County Commissioners about the unsightliness of the poles for high-voltage lines, but on Sept. 1, some of them took the fight directly to the power company.
Julie and Chris Gadway, who live off of Bowie Shop Road in Huntingtown, don't have any of the new poles on their property, but they still have to look at them, and they are not happy about it. Besides being ugly, the new infrastructure will lower property values and detract from historic properties, Julie Gadway complained as she waved bright yellow posters featuring photos of the new, steel poles looming over the old wooden ones.
The utility had contacted them, "telling us replacing the poles, that's all they said," omitting to mention that they would be 75 feet tall and made of steel, she said. "… SMECO did not tell the whole truth on it."
"That is an eyesore," a man passing by agreed as he got in line for a free soda.
"I couldn't believe it. We were just like, ‘No, no, no,'" Gadway said.
The poles affected her lifelong pride in Southern Maryland, Cheryl Hannon of Prince Frederick announced during the question-and-answer period of the meeting.
"Over the summer I was traveling on Route 4 and a big disappointment broke my heart. I saw electric poles. I was told we need additional electricity, therefore we have the poles and things going up in Calvert, but it just broke my heart. ... They remind me of rusty utility barrels, one piled on top of the other. It just takes so much away from the landscape," Hannon said.
SMECO President and CEO Austin "Joe" Slater, who said a few members had buttonholed him before the meeting to criticize the structures, said he was well aware of the controversy the 29 poles had spawned, and vowed to "find an alternative if it's economically feasible." At the same time the utility had chosen the least disruptive of seven potential routes and used a pole design preferred by the public, he said. The outer layer of the poles is designed to rust over, which he said would help them blend in with the trees.
"Over the last 20 years we have not been able to keep up with the load" increase in the region, and the new high-voltage lines, as well as the also-controversial new Huntingtown substation that they serve, are necessary, he said.
Any improvements "will not happen overnight. I don't want to create false expectations," he said.
But the poles were not the only thing on members' minds.
Mel Davis of La Plata came to the microphone to lament a SMECO bylaw barring convicted felons from serving on the board of directors, but did not seem to win over the crowd.
"I think members of the cooperative would generally agree convicted felons should not be serving on your board of directors," board attorney Joseph R. Densford responded, eliciting cheers.
"I think you're disqualifying qualified people prematurely by having this disqualification in here, so convicted felons don't have to be punished for the rest of their lives for something they've already served their sentence for," Davis answered.
Sharon Johnson of Compton asked what the utility is doing to pursue alternative energy.
"It's a competitive process. We're in the hunt," Slater answered. Earlier, he said SMECO opposed cap-and-trade legislation intended to reduce carbon emissions out of concern for its effect on energy costs.
Slater also said the company is doing what it can to cut its own costs, including having 23 fewer employees than a few years ago, ending the defined benefit pension for workers and including their health insurance deductibles and copays, ending the outsourcing of its information technology work and refinancing its debt. He urged members to pay bills online because it would save the utility $5 per customer per year.
"We're leaving no stone unturned," Slater said.
This argument did not resonate with Calvin Compton of Port Tobacco, who said he would never pay online because he hates computers, and regretted the impending closure of SMECO's White Plains office.
"I'm really disappointed you closed the drop box because you go there on weekends and there's nowhere to put [a payment]," he said.
For showing up to vote, 50 SMECO members, chosen randomly, will receive a $35 credit on their next bill. Members who stayed until the very end of the meeting had a chance to win savings bonds or a used car.
Third time was the charm for Mark E. Clark of Owings, who won a 1997 Chevy Cavalier, retired from the SMECO fleet, after two other winners were found to have left early, making themselves ineligible. He wasn't sure if he would sell or keep it, but was unfazed by the vehicle's 180,000 miles.
"It's five years newer than the car I drive to and from work every day, a '92 Honda Civic," he said.
New board
Members of the Southern Maryland Electric Cooperative elected their new board of directors Sept. 1. The winners were:
Calvert County: W. Michael Phipps of Owings.
Charles County: Gilbert O. Bowling and Richard A. Winkler, both of La Plata.
St. Mary's County: P. Scott White of California.
Prince George's County: James A. Richards of Brandywine.
All but Phipps ran unopposed.
