Xcel towers
This is a classic case of David vrs Goliath. The residents around Ruby Hill and their neighborhood organizations want underground cabling and an end to visual pollution at one of Denver’s great city parks. Short-sighted special interests and councilman Brown want what they want and the people be damned.
Brown ignores the potential health ramifications of doubling the amount of voltage above ground at Ruby Hill. Apart from all the anecdotal evidence of danger from proximity to high-voltage towers, how much more civilized it would be to simply bury the potential problem and improve the aesthetics of Ruby Hill.
Brown says he wants to save money for the ratepayers. Putting the lines underground would cost an extra $4.4 million. Amortize that over twenty years and by my reckoning we have an annual cost of about $220,000 plus interest. Somehow I think Xcel could shoulder that “burden"-perhaps with a loan from their overpaid CEO ($11.2 million in 2006).
I wonder sometimes if there is any developer or big-money interest in Denver for whom Charlie Brown won’t carry the water.
Citizens have an opportunity to head off this travesty at a public hearing in city council chambers on Monday, July 9. Mr. Brown, expect a good fight.
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