City threatens Duke over streetcar costs
The city of Cincinnati, at an impasse with Duke Energy over who should pay to relocate utility lines for the $110 million-plus streetcar project, says it is “investigating potential legal remedy” to the financial standoff.
In a three-page update to City Council members on the streetcar’s status, City Manager Milton Dohoney Jr. Tuesday acknowledged that City Hall’s inability to reach an agreement with Duke “threatens to pose significant cost risk” and also could delay construction of the Downtown riverfront-to-Over-the-Rhine line.
Duke officials have said previously that if City Hall does not pay what initially was an $18.7 million cost for relocating gas and electric lines, the price could be passed on to the utility’s customers in the city of Cincinnati. The company has filed a proposal to that effect with the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio.
City Hall. however, contends that Duke is fully responsible for the relocation expense, and Dohoney’s memo indicates the city is prepared to go to court to press the point.
“It remains the city’s position that Duke is responsible under state law for performing and bearing the full cost of the relocation work,” Dohoney told council members. “The city is investigating potential legal remedy to the situation as well as potential stopgap funding mechanisms that will allow work to continue while cost sharing issues are resolved at a later time.”
So the city comes up with an idiotic idea - a streetcar to nowhere. They budget and plan and budget and plan. They come up with a lowball figure. When they realize, too late, they forgot to include relocating the power lines, they tell Duke that it's on the hook for that bill.
