Today, the city of Stuart met with downtown businesses about a multi-million dollar project to move power lines underground in effort to make the power grid more resilient to severe storms.
Right now, sidewalks along downtown Stuart are crowded with power poles, so business owners in the area are happy with the makeover.
“One of the big things that we’re excited about is getting the utility lines buried back here,” Bill Moore, owner of Kilwins in downtown Stuart, said.
Moore says he’s spent years asking the city to run power underground.
“We’re excited to see this cleaned up and this street become more functional and walkable,” Moore said.
The city told WPTV Reporter Cassandra Garcia that the project won’t just impact the look.
“We’re going to increase our reliability, reduce power outages downtown,” Stuart Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) Director Pinal Gandhi-Savdas said.
Business owners recalled the impacts of Hurricane Milton last month.
“I think this last hurricane we were closed for three days I believe, so that’s three zeros, so that’s no fun at all,” said Ron Hart, owner of The Dirty Hippie in Downtown Stuart.