The east side of Athens-Clarke County has experienced numerous lengthy power outages over the last couple years, but representatives from Georgia Power say that people living there won’t have to suffer through so many outages for too much longer.
Commissioner Carol Myers, who represents the Green Acres neighborhood and surrounding areas, invited Georgia Power to explain the power outages to her constituents at a town hall meeting last week.
“We’ve had a pretty rough couple of years on the east side of Athens,” admitted Lance Poole, an engineering supervisor with Georgia Power. “A lot of that has been weather related. Almost a third of your power outages in the last three years have been caused by weather. Things like trees falling and lightning strikes. 2024 was a record for us for weather events.”
Other issues that can cause power outages are squirrels chewing through wires and other wildlife problems, cars running into utility poles and also equipment failure due to age.
“In March, 818 customers were impacted due to a large tree that fell and broke three [utility] poles. It took us five or six hours to make that repair,” Poole said. “As we were almost done, another tree fell and broke two more poles. So, these customers ended up being impacted for over 11 hours.”
Georgia Power Distribution Manager David Williams explained that the company normally trims tree branches up to 15 feet away from power lines on a three to five year cycle. One option for the community, he said, would be to allow Georgia Power to trim an extra five feet to further reduce the number of branches that might cause issues.
“One of the things that’s an option for us is to acquire the right-of-way to trim trees further from the lines. That takes buy-in from the homeowner. You have to give us the legal right to do that. We could purchase an additional five feet from the property owner and trim that from ground to sky so we could get the trees further away,” Williams said.
Poole admitted that some of the electrical equipment on the Eastside is aging and in need of repairs. He said that Georgia Power is replacing some of the old lines to better insulate them and make them more resistant to squirrels and other animals. In addition, the company is in the process of upgrading the lines with new technology that will allow them to heal themselves in the case of a circuit break.
“We’re installing automated devices on the three or four circuits that touch the Eastside area. Some of them are coming online now,” Poole said. “When you have a tree fall, those devices are going to self-heal so the least amount of customers will be impacted. They usually heal the circuit in five minutes. Over the next six to twelve months, you should start seeing the reliability improvement as we get all of these devices online.”
Tony Ferguson, Georgia Power’s Northeast Region Executive, told the audience that his company has already spent close to $1.5 million on various upgrades to the Eastside power grid this year.
Introducing Bob Cowell
The audience also got an introduction from recently hired ACC Manager Bob Cowell during the town hall meeting. The manager is the chief executive of the ACC government. The manager is in charge of hiring and firing the assistant managers and the various department heads, thereby guiding the local government as a whole.
“Our job is to take the priorities that the mayor and commission have identified and make those happen while keeping the things running that we need to run in order to keep your quality of life and your safety where it needs to be,” Cowell told the audience.
Cowell said that public safety, affordable housing and economic growth are some of the primary areas that the mayor and commission have asked him to focus on. In addition to these goals, Cowell listed one project in particular that he’ll be focusing on, moving forward.
“My number one priority is to build the new courthouse,” Cowell said. “It’s been talked about for years and years and if you’ve been in the courthouse recently, you would realize how desperate the need is. It‘s a building that is not doing well and it’s not serving the community as well as it should be.”
Cowell said that his top hiring priority is to fill the vacant elections director position, and his second priority is to fill the two assistant manager positions (Central Services Director Andrew Saunders and Economic Development Director Ilka McConnell are serving on an interim basis). Since former manager Blaine Williams stepped down in 2024, every position in the manager’s office has turned over at least once.
Future land use
The last topic on Myers’ agenda was a full explanation of the new future land use map currently under consideration by the commission. Some on the commission and in the public at large have been extremely wary of the changes this map might bring. In particular, some worry that the map would encourage density, development and gentrification across town if it is approved by the commission.
However, Myers told the audience that the map by itself does not authorize additional density or any other zoning changes. Every development that deviates from what is allowed in Athens’ zoning codes would still need commission approval as normal.
“Nothing is going to change until we change the zoning,” Myers said. “[This map] shouldn’t be scary. Anything scary would come later on.”
The future land use map does provide guidance to the commission and the planning department when they decide to approve or reject developers’ rezoning requests. This makes it an important milestone that will guide development in Athens for decades to come, even if it doesn’t make any actual zoning changes by itself.
The map currently under consideration does not propose any changes to single-family neighborhoods. In fact, only 6% of the county’s land would change categories if the map is approved.
You can check out the current future land use map here. A story map explaining what might be changed in the new version can be seen here.
Help APN continue covering local news for the Athens area!
Please consider becoming a member or giving a one-time donation via PayPal.
