Power

Power

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Towers

Near

By IMI’HNE HITCH I1VSON

Rap|Mihannork V Staff rit«*r

The Rappahannock Board of Zoning Appeals granted a 6 months permit to Perrin i Construction Company for an j office trailer and storage ; trailer on Amissville Fire Company property during construction of concrete 1 foundations for the Vepco's power line towers.

The application from Perrin was the only item on the agenda for the October 12 BZA meeting. The Board members unanimously approved the permit and afterwards listened to Raymond Mims, representing Perrin Construction, explain the project.

According to Mims, holes for the concrete foundations are approximately 14 feet deep. The excavation is done with a hydraulic machine that can di^> three to five foot holes with one bucket. When the machine hits rock, construction workers drill a hole for dynamite and then blast the rock out.

Mims said that the towers weren't anchored in rock because that procedure ■ equircs the on-the-job ptesence of an engineer at all times to check if the rock is solid According to Mims, this makes rock anchoring both time consuming and expensive.

"Have you ever had a tower go down?" asked BZA member James Massie.

Mims acknowledged that this had happened on the Mount Storm line two or tluce years ago as the result of a heavy ice storm. However, he stressed that towers fell "very, very seldom

He reported that 40 towers had alrc.tdv been set from t'edarvillc to Happy Creek outside Front Royal in Warren Countv. The first tower in Rappahannock, said Mims, is at the Rappahannock River close to the Jav Dawson property. He addgd that ten towers have already been erected to date in the county.

"If Vepco keeps raising its rates, they'll have to cut off so many customers for nonpavment of bills that they won't need all those towers." commented BZA Chairman Josef Gardiner.

Mims' replay sparked a round of laughter from the Board. “I try to get a bill into them each month that runs a little more than my electric bill." he joked.