JUPITER, Fla. — A few dozen people are concerned about an exposed electric cable crossing the street at Little Club Condominiums, a senior living facility in Jupiter.
People believe the wire is an electrical hazard because it has a sign saying "hot" in the laundry room, making it inaccessible with a metal door. People are concerned about driving their cars over the wire because the plastic covering is broken and disabled people are concerned about their scooters becoming damaged.
Barbra Panuska, who drives an electric scooter to move around at 93 years old, said she saw a go-kart spark after it drove over the wires without using the plastic guard. She's now concerned she could get electrocuted if she drove over the wire.
"I called and I got absolutely nowhere," Panuska said. "Of course I'm annoyed. I'm going to be 94 so I'm a little annoyed. I'm a lotta annoyed."
She calls the wire a "stupid thing" and said it means she has to drive around the block carrying her laundry to another unit to clean her clothes or grab mail. Panuska and her neighbors said it's been there since August.
Mary Krosky, who lives in the community as well, said nobody has fixed the wire from a broken transformer after she's called for help multiple times. She's concerned somebody is going to get hurt and is frustrated with the noise it makes as people move in and out of the community.
“It’s dangerous, it moves," Krosky said. "That thing moves and I live right above it and I’m hearing Ka-Kunk, Ka-Kunk.”
Conlan Kennedy, who is a spokesperson for Florida Power & Light, said the wire is a groundstrap and allows people to get power in their building in an email. He described it is a safe means of providing temporary power and wrote the Little Club Condominium Association is responsible for fixing the equipment since the association owns the equipment.
"A piece of customer-owned equipment in the community recently failed," Kennedy wrote. "We’ve actively been in communication with the community regarding the matter, as it is their responsibility to have the customer-owned equipment repaired or replaced by a licensed electrician."
Bob Nelson, who is the president for the Little Club Condominium Association, said he hired a contractor to make repairs more than a month ago. He said the contractor told him in an email that FPL wasn't giving him the approval to perform work at the senior community and four other locations.
Emails provided to WPTV show an employee with Go Local Electric, LLC expressed frustration with five projects not being approved in a timely fashion. He blamed the issue on a new service planer being assigned to the area.
"I am writing to update you on the status of FPL," Douglas Dietrich said in an email on Dec. 20. "A new service planer that has been assigned to our area. Unfortunately, he has been very difficult to communicate with and has not responded to our inquiries in a timely manner."
The employee said he had four other jobs where he was waiting for approval in the Jensen Beach area and even tried escalating the issue to other managers.
"...we have tried to contact him via phone and email almost every day," Dietrich worte. We have also escalated the issue to the head engineer, but he was not able to help us much either. We apologize for the inconvenience and the delay this has caused."
James Murray, who is a manager at Go Local Electric, LLC, said the company has been frustrated with delays and described it as rare.
"While we have been frustrated over the delays with this project and the response not received we want to make it clear that this is an anomaly with regard to FPL’s normal response to our projects," he wrote in an email. "During our 9+ years working in this industry and coordinating projects with FPL this recent issue of projects being delayed is not usual practice."
A spokesperson for FPL said it coordinated with the community’s electrician to support the required repairs to customer-owned equipment, which will allow FPL to return the permanent service feed to the building.
Murray said the job is now scheduled for completion on Thursday.
