Live Wire Danger - Please Warn Children

We have a serious vandalism problem with people stealing the wire for the street lights in Phase 3. They stole another block of wiring since Sunday afternoon. The street lights are now out in 4 blocks.

PLEASE ADVISE THE CHILDREN NOT TO TOUCH ANY OF THE WIRING IN PHASE 3. It is safer to tell them ALL WIRING than to tell them that just the high voltage street light wiring may injure or kill them. Tacoma Power told Jim Ehnborn that the HOA must hire an electrician to test for “live wires” and fix the problem because Grand Firs is a private community and Tacoma Power is not responsible for maintaining the street lights or power lines. We own all of the street lights, wiring and power transformers.

A Tacoma Power Electrical Inspector was taking a break this afternoon in Phase 3. He was the inspector during the installation of the power in Grand Firs. He graciously offered to help us resolve the problem. The wires he tested were “live” and carrying 220 volts of electricity. He showed Jim Ehnborn how to turn off the circuit breakers. Since we are not able to stop the vandalism, we agreed that a safer solution is to turn off the power to the street lights in Phase 3 and lock the circuit breaker boxes. None of the boxes are currently locked. If he finds that Grand Firs has not paid the electric bill for the street lights, he will work with us to have the power remain on for the street lights in Phase 1 and 2.

Phase 3 is scheduled to be auctioned on March 5, 2010. Mastro Properties currently owes over $18 million to the bank. The lots in Phase 4 were combined with Phase 3 earlier this year for a total of 202 lots.