Burying utilities just making a mess

I am a resident of Palm Beach and live at the south end. I am appalled at what the town is doing to our properties: digging up great mounds of dirt in front of our buildings, cutting underground phone and internet lines, breaking water main pipes and gas lines and creating power surges and power losses and not knowing what they are going to encounter next.

It is outrageous that this work is going on. I am of the impression that none of this work should have been started until the lawsuits against the idea of an undergrounding project have been settled. The town is completely ignoring this fact and going ahead, not informing the public that the project is not yet a done deal until the lawsuits are settled.

The town is also ignoring the fact that the south end is in the most severe flood hazard zone of its FEMA flood map area. Why is this project even being done in a flood zone?

Money should be spent on our battered beaches which have suffered from the hurricanes, not for something which the town feels will “look nicer” than the concrete poles, which incidentally have proved very reliable.

I say stop these machines from digging up these gaping holes in front of our once beautiful lawns, leaving unsightly huge patches of gray dirt with three really ugly large yellow capped rubber protrusions sticking up in the middle of it all.

Is what the town is doing right? I would venture to say no.

BARBARA NEIMAN, PALM BEACH