Manufactured home communities are often “lightning bolts” when it comes to news.

In the instance of the Sunny Acres Mobile Home Park in Tampa, Florida, it’s literal.

According to WFLA, a high voltage, electric underground cable is lying above ground, on the sidewalk in the community, and it’s been there for five months.

Why? It appears that electricity provider Duke Energy won’t pay to bury the cable because they insist that they do not own the wiring. But electricians say that the wiring at the community is only used by power companies.

“It’s not safe at all,” said resident Katherine Rogers.

“I can’t go out my back door without tripping over an electric wire. And they tell me to make sure that nobody hits that with anything sharp,” said resident Francis Dorsey.

The reason that the cable is above ground stretches back to September, when Hurricane Hermine soaked the area, then short-circuited the buried power line.

Duke Energy then installed a high voltage wire that runs the length of the community and another one around the perimeter. After they did, they then claimed that it’s up to the community to pay to bury the line.

That sparked a disagreement.

 

“It’s up to us to pay an electrician to fix it, well yeah, from the meters to the trailers [sic], that’s understandable,” said Dorsey. “But, the electric line to the meters? No, that’s always been the power company’s place to do it.”

The Florida Public Service Commission has caused additional confusion, by changing their position on the issue. They first said that Duke is responsible for burying the cable, and then they stated the wiring was privately owned by the community.

“Sunny Acres owns electrical equipment at its mobile home park [sic], including underground wires providing power to the mobile homes,” said Duke Energy spokesperson Ana Gibbs.

“In September 2016, Duke Energy provided, as a courtesy, a small, temporary fix to ensure service would continue. Duke requested that a permanent repair be installed.”

For Rogers, the lack of attention to the safety of residents simply doesn’t make sense.

“You just don’t leave something that is creating a huge liability, where somebody could trip over it or a lawn guy could accidentally hit it with machinery. You could get electrocuted,” said Rogers.

According to two electrical contractors who examined the wiring at Sunny Acres, the question of “who” is responsible is pretty clear.

“Electrical contractors do not use the size wiring installed at Sunny Acres, only power companies do,” said one of the contractors.

With that opinion, and the high costs that would come with burying the cable, Rogers believes there’s no confusion.

“You know, they should step up and own it,” said Rogers. “We’re their customers.” ##

 

(Image credits are as shown above.)

 

Submitted by RC Williams to the Daily Business News for MHProNews.