City Council Considers Undergrounding Utilities

City leaders may begin the process Tuesday evening to move all utilities on a stretch of Freedom Boulevard below ground.

The issue comes before the Watsonville City Council. It involves undergrounding telephone, cable and electricity wires on a one-third of a mile area of Freedom Boulevard between West High Street and Miles Lane.

The project would cost more than $1.6 million, according to a city staff report (it's about two-thirds of the way through the document). About $40,000 worth of telephone fees would be paid from existing funds collected through the Underground Utility In-Lieu Fee program; Pacific Gas & Electric has a fund that would cover the remainder of the costs, according to the city.

The first step in the process is to set public meetings to collect input from Watsonville residents.

In other business, the Watsonville City Council is expected to approve responses to the three investigations that focused on city finances.

The city council meets at 6:30 p.m. in the council chambers, on the fourth floor of the Civic Plaza, 275 Main St. Meetings also are televised live on Charter Cable Communications Channel 70 and AT&T Channel 99.