LUBBOCK, Texas – In North Lubbock’s Arnett Benson neighborhood, Lubbock Power and Light (LP&L) is replacing older wooden utility poles with new, larger transmission lines.
“It allows us to move more electricity around the system in an even fashion so that when we have outages, we have the ability to get customers up quicker,” said Matt Rose of LP&L.
Arnett Benson residents have complained about the construction project. They believe the new poles are “obnoxiously big” and will affect their property values.
“It’s not unreasonable to think that if this were another zip code elsewhere in the city, we might not even be having this conversation,” said Julian Gutierrez, a concerned resident.
Gutierrez said he and other residents understand that upgrades are needed but they wish LP&L had communicated with before the installation of the new poles.
“Maybe there were attempts to do so, but a lot of the folks around here did not get that message,” said Gutierrez. “Almost overnight, from one day to next, these poles started going up.”
LP&L said they mailed out notices to Arnett Benson residents in July of 2017 and provided residents an opportunity to voice their concerns at two open houses that summer.
“Every single person that had a property that was affected or possibly affected received a letter along with a copy of the [Texas] Landowner Bill of Rights,” said Rose. “We placed advertisements in the newspaper and did really everything we possibly could to draw attention to the early parts of this process.”
A lifelong resident of Arnett Benson, Gutierrez said he and his neighbors believe LP&L had done things differently.
“As humble as a lot of us are, we’re still proud of what we have,” said Gutierrez.
