Henderson residents voice concerns over substation plans near them

HENDERSON, Tenn. — Thursday evening, Jacks Creek Cove residents and members of Southwest Electric gathered to make the final decision to expand or rezone a substation.

At the June 13 City Council meeting, Henderson-Chester County residents and Southwest Electric members were given 10 minutes each to share the impact their decision could have with the mayor and alderman.

Residents are concerned about the long-term effects of the presence of this power plant in their community.

“Unfortunately, these power lines fell on someone's car and the whole family was electrocuted. Kids break into these stations as some kind of challenge,” resident Lauren Balieus said.

Residents also noted that this location is near two schools, which also raises concerns.

They shared hundreds of flyers and got hundreds of signatures on their petitions.

“We have only received positive responses. Most people didn’t even know this was being proposed in the area, so just letting them know that you might want to look into this for yourselves really got the community to come together,” Lauren said.

For the South West, cost is a concern about moving the vote.

“A substation will ultimately cost Southwest Electric $6 million. We will install two transformers and probably four substation circuit breakers there to support the community and the future,” said Kevin Murphy, president of Southwest Electric.

This is important to Southwest because they say they are planning for the future.

“So we're trying to plan for the additions that we need right now. We're at the point where we need a second substation and it offers the most economical location for us, so we're doing it. “We chose,” Murphy said.

However, some residents say they are willing to pay more for coverage than Southwest would provide elsewhere.

“Southwest Tennessee Electric has 52,000 subscribers, so even if it costs a million dollars to come up with a different plan or place it somewhere else, that's the cost of a year. That works out to $19 in change per person, if you split it monthly it works out to $60 per month. I agree that you can't even have a cup of coffee with sixty dollars,” said Jean Balieus.

The decision to move or remain the substation was entrusted to another committee which will have to decide in July.

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