The Village of Greenport has reached agreement with the Long Island Power Authority on the proposed power cable to Shelter Island, Mayor George Hubbard Jr. announced at last night’s trustees work session.
The board will vote at its next regular meeting on Nov. 28 to authorize the village attorney and village administrator to negotiate the terms of the agreement.
“They sweetened the pot significantly,” Hubbard said. The utility will make an as-yet undisclosed cash payment to the village, will install a backup cable that the village board believes is “crucial to the village” and install an automatic switch gear, the mayor said. PSEG will repave the full width of the roadway upon completion.
Hubbard said the board met in executive session to discuss the details of the negotiation and there was unanimous consensus that it would be beneficial to the village.
The work would begin in September 2017 and be completed in May 2018, he said. LIPA will pay for a local resident ombudsman, to be selected by the village, to help Fifth Street residents during the construction.
“We’re going to be on them like a dog,” Hubbard said.
PSEG’s proposal to run a power cable from Greenport to Shelter Island, requiring trenching on Fifth Street, provoked anger among residents there.
Both the village and LIPA sought lead agency status to oversee the environmental review of the project. The DEC commissioner on Nov. 10 ruled in favor of the utility company in the lead agency dispute.
“LIPA, as a regional agency and public authority, is in a better position to consider the impacts of the entire cable including, most importantly, potential impacts of regional importance,” DEC Commissioner Basil Seggos wrote in the decision.
“Given the geographic span of the project and LIPA’s comparatively broader authority to investigate impacts along the entire length of the proposed feeder cable, I conclude that LIPA should serve as lead agency for the review of the project.”
