THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, December 24, 1994 TAG: 9412240282
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY THOMAS YOCUM, CORRESPONDENT
DATELINE: BUXTON LENGTH: Long : 103 lines
The Cape Hatteras Electric Cooperative's board of directors said Friday that, for now, no further work or payments will be authorized for the utility's accounting firm.
The firm, Johnson and Dooley of Danville, Va., has been the utility's accountant since 1979, and in the past year was paid more than $430,000.
A spokesman for the cooperative's 500 petitioning members had requested the board's action.
The announcement came on the heels of a disclosure that the replacement of 58 insulators on a 3-mile stretch of line in the Pea Island Wildlife Refuge has been postponed until spring because work was not completed before migrating ducks and geese settled in the protected area.
As a result, residents of Hatteras Island probably will continue to be plagued with power blips and outages in bad weather. The state-of-the-art replacement insulators were designed to eliminate the problems.
The work, on lines from 2.5 to 5.5 miles south of Oregon Inlet, is part of a multimillion dollar upgrade of the utility's transmission line.
The cooperative had asked last Sept. 29, according to records at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Pea Island office, for permission to work in the refuge and replace the insulators. Permission was granted Oct. 17, with the provision that work be completed before Nov. 1, so migrating waterfowl would not be disturbed.
The work wasn't done before the deadline, and this week the federal agency declined to approve a request for an extension.
The denial was the latest in a series of problems plaguing the cooperative, which provides power to about 3,825 member-customers on Hatteras Island.
Construction of the new line, which would boost the available power to Hatteras and Ocracoke Islands by almost 300 percent, was planned during the tenure of former general manager Myron Rummel. Rummel resigned last year, and his successor, John A. Echols, quit this fall after four months on the job.
Recently, the Board of Directors asked Rummel to return as general manager to complete the project he had helped to start. Rummel turned down the job earlier in the week.
When Echols quit, he was critical of payments to the accounting firm, and contended that meddling by board members interfered with the operation of the utility. The board and Johnson and Dooley had defended the payments, saying that coordinating the $15 million upgrade of the power line required special expertise and trained personnel provided by the accounting firm.
However, the board said Friday that future work by Johnson and Dooley ``will be determined by the board pending an independent third-party review of the accounting and consulting records'' of the accountants.
``This action is not based on any anticipated results of the review,'' said Jack Gray, president of the board. ``Rather, it involves a response to the wishes of co-op members'' at a meeting Wednesday night.
``It's neither an accusation nor admission of wrongdoing by anyone. We're responding to members' comments and media stories, conditions which continue to drain our people's energy and resources.''
The construction delays for work on the line in the waterfowl refuge also were disclosed at the Wednesday meeting.
Jim Johnson, who oversees Pea Island and Alligator River National Wildlife refuges, said in an interview Thursday that he repeatedly alerted the cooperative about the time restrictions.
``There was a real lack of coordination,'' Johnson said, adding that he urged the cooperative to get the work done before the arrival of waterfowl, but, he said, his warnings were not heeded.
``The public should understand that the Cape Hatteras EMC had all the privileges in the world,'' Johnson said. ``I've gone out of my way to cooperate.''
Johnson said that ``because of mismanagement, they've failed to get the job done.''
Work crews will be allowed back into the area when the waterfowl head north, traditionally about March 1.
John Robert Hooper, a member of the utility's board of directors, said it was unfortunate that the failure to replace the insulators was being criticized.
``This upgrade has been complex, and we're proud of what we've accomplished,'' Hooper said. ``The last thing that we want to do is to get into an argument with the Fish and Wildlife Service. They have worked with us, and we need to work with them.''
Dennis Stewart, refuge biologist for Pea Island, said that even without the replacement insulators in the refuge, electric service has been improved.
``The replacement of insulators on other parts of the line has been a big improvement in service,'' he said. ``Our power comes from Hatteras Electric, and what has already been done has helped tremendously in our service. We have had few outages.''
The new insulators, designed to cope with the wind-blown salt that interferes with service on the old insulators, have reduced outages by 95 percent in other areas where they were installed.
Board officials, who had hoped Rummel would return, now are renewing their search for a general manager.
``Our first step will be to hire an interim manager,'' said board member Dale Burrus. ``We contacted the North Carolina EMC office, and they have a pool of retired managers who could be available on a short-term basis. We're searching hard.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo by DREW C. WILSON, Staff
Journeyman electrician Greg Williamson, right, and inspector Mike
Jordon check out the three cables over Oregon Inlet. The three-mile
strand is the longest of its kind in North America.
by CNB