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Arden plans to give a recap on his trip at the Town Board meeting Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. in North Castle Town Hall.
Arden has publicly endorsed the idea since Hurricane Sandy because he believes it is the best way to limit major power outages. When talking about installing underground wires last month as one of his goals for North Castle in 2013, he mentioned that he was going to “stir that pot pretty good.”
Tuesday was his chance to get the idea on the radars of county legislators. But he knows he is in for an uphill battle, given that burying wires is costly and time-consuming.
“I know we will never have it at every house,” he said. “But we need to take a look at where it would make sense. There are locations in North Castle that, if buried, could lower power outages by 60 to 70 percent.”
One official Arden was hoping to talk with is Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino.
At an “Ask Astorino” session last month in New Castle, the county executive told residents burying wires in Westchester County is something he “can’t ever see happening.” He said underground wires cost millions of dollars per mile to install.
Whether Astorino and the county's legislators would be open to burying some wires was something Arden hoped to find out Tuesday.
“At the very least, we need to have an engineering analysis done,” said Arden. “Then, we can have a better idea as to what it would take to bury wires underground in critical areas only.”
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