FEMA

grant to aid

area co-op

Old power lines

to be rebuilt

By KURT NESBITT

Journal Staff Writer

ST. JAMES -- Rural electric customers might see slight interruptions in their power as the South Central Electric Association replaces its older, weather-worn power lines.

The construction will be funded by a $1.4 million grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

The grant is one of several different FEMA grants going to help clean up flood damage in Roseau and Lake St. Croix Beach as well as bury electrical power lines in other rural areas of Minnesota. The grants, released by FEMA on Tuesday, total more than $7 million.

Mark Anderson, operations manager for South Central Electric Association in St. James, said the co-op plans to rebuild older power lines in Cottonwood and Watonwan counties. He said the lines have seen ice storms, tornadoes and wind damage. Many of the lines were built in the 1940s and '50s, Anderson said.

He said the construction won't affect cities because the co-op only sells electricity to rural areas.

While South Central doesn't provide electrical service to Brown County, Anderson said it has lines that run along the borders of Cottonwood and Watonwan counties and Brown County.

'We're hoping to finish this project within the year," Anderson said.

South Central has three different projects on which it will use the grant money. There are 31 miles of lines where three wire carries power and the other acts as a neutral, 6 miles where two lines carry power and 16 1/2 miles where one wire carries power.

Anderson described the system, which serves about 2,500 people, as "old copper wire ... small ... weather damaged ... and patched together."

He said South Central doesn't have the grant money in hand yet, but expects to have it within the next few weeks.

Anderson said users should expect temporary power outages along the route until all the lines are replaced.