the main line from Sperryville to Front Royal with

the main line from Sperryville to Front Royal with poles 10 to 15 taller and with a shield wire on top. He said they were concerned about the safety of the line itself. “It’s quite old,” he said. He said that the power surge in January that damaged a lot of electronic equipment in the area aroung Washington was caused when a “higher voltage line ran into a lower voltage line.”

“That line is only two feet from my house,” Mrs. Fox said. “With poles 15 to 20 feet high, if a line came down in a storm, it would burn my house down.”

We can look at relocating the line,” Mr. Saufley said.

“I’m on a hill. We have high winds. That metallic line is obscene to have to look at,” Mrs. Fox said.

“Are you taking down every old pole and replacing it with a higher pole?” Susan Babcock of Flint Hill asked. The power company spokesmen said they would do just that. “Have you thought of putting the line underground?” Mrs. Babcock wanted to know.

Mr. Jackson said that would cost five to seven times as much as aboVe ground wires.

“Our rates are based on overhead service,” Mr. Saufley said.

Mrs. Babcock then asked if there was anywhere she could go to see what the line would look like when it was finished.

After some thought the pow'er company representatives said there was a similar line coming from the Pratt substation in Madison County.

Mr. Anderson asked if the shield wire was aluminum.

"Yes,” Mr. Saufley said.

"It dulls with age, doesn’t it?” Mr. Anderson asked.

“Yes,” Mr. Saufley said, “but it takes time.”

Hampton District representative Mike Massie suggested that the power company work with landowners wrhen improving the line. He suggested that they consider moving poles out of the middle of fields and closer to fence lines or “in rock piles I can’t farm anyway.” He suggested they also time their work so they don’t ruin crops.