The community is invited to an open house for an opportunity to review the southern Columbia electric transmission line route options and costs on Tuesday, November 13, 2012 at Windsor Auditorium on the Stephens College campus, 1405 E. Broadway. The event will take place from 6:00 pm to 9:00 pm with a presentation from 7:00 pm to 8:00 pm. People will have a chance to review the maps and talk to Columbia Water & Light staff before and after the presentation.  

An online questionnaire for the final electric transmission line route selection will be available to all Columbia residents at http://tinyurl.com/columbiaelectric from November 13 through December 31, 2012. For those that do not have access to a computer, a paper form can be requested by calling 573-874-7325. The feedback form is being limited to one per household. The public's views will be forwarded to the Columbia City Council before the decision is made on the final transmission line route.

If you are unable to attend the meeting, it will be broadcast live on Columbia Access Television: channel 85 on Mediacom, channel 603 on CentryLink and channel 983 on Charter. A live stream of the meeting can be accessed at columbiaaccess.tv/watch and youtube.com/columbiaaccess. The meeting will be rebroadcast for four weeks after the meeting on Monday, Wednesday, Friday at 8:30 am; Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, Sunday at 5:30 pm; and Saturday and Sunday at noon.  The video will be available on demand within 24 hours of the meeting by going to columbiaaccess.tv/schedule and searching for "transmission meeting."

The transmission lines in the southern part of the city are being built to reliably deliver electricity to this area and meet federal standards. This project involves adding transmission lines to connect the new Millcreek substation on Peach Tree Drive with some of the existing substations. After gathering input from those living in the area, preferred routes for both Option A and Option B have been determined. In addition, another option referred to as B-2, runs a section of transmission lines along existing city property that is parallel to a section of the MKT and Katy trail.

At the meeting on Tuesday, the history of this project will be reviewed along with showing the preferred routes for each of the options. Advantages and disadvantages of each option, cost estimates of the project and the potential rate impact of installing overhead versus underground lines will be presented. Construction costs for building overhead lines could increase electric rates for Columbia by 1.2% to 1.5%. Constructing the transmission lines underground could raise rates by 8.9% to 11.5%. Both of these scenarios were based on using voter approved bond funds which are the lowest cost financing option. These estimates do not include easement acquisition.

For more detailed information about this project: www.gocolumbiamo.com/WaterandLight/Electric/ProposedElectricTransmission.php