Tollefsrud wants some time to consider other plans and to work out a deal with HEA for an alternate route. At 9:30 a.m. Friday, Tollefsrud, her neighbors and HEA representatives meet at her yurt to discuss alternate plans. Before the bulldozers roll, she wants time to consider the impact of construction on bluff erosion, and to give state and federal agencies time to look at erosion issues in the area.

From her house just off Mount Augustine Drive, Tollefsrud will look down at power poles and lines across what’s now a killer view of Kachemak Bay and the beach below. It’s bad enough that her view will be spoiled, she said. What concerns her more is that in putting in the poles and damaging the alders, the area at the foot of her lot could start sliding down the cliff.

Already, parts of the bluff with fireweed, pushki and other vegetation has started to separate and move downhill toward a creek ravine. Thirty-foot high alders hold the bluff together, Tollefsrud said, and suck up water that could saturate the soil.

“None of these things should be coming over the bluff,” she said of the power line extension. “No matter where they will be coming down the bluff, it will cause erosion.”

At a meeting last month with Country Club Estate property owners, other neighbors and HEA, Tollefsrud and other neighbors thought they had worked out a deal. Access to the Country Club Estate lots is by a private road running through an easement on Bryan Zak’s property off Rene Court. The steep road winds down a house perched on the edge of a bluff and already tilting toward the beach. HEA mapped out a route that would go from Rene Court, through Zak’s property and then into the Country Club Estate lots.

“That’s the only acceptable way, I think, is down their own road,” Tollefsrud said. “They have a responsibility within their own subdivision.”

After that meeting, though, the Country Club Estate landowners backed off and asked HEA to go with the original plan. Zak said he wanted a liability clause for any easement assuring he wouldn’t be held responsible for any slope damage a power line might cause. The landowners weren’t willing to make that assurance, he said.

At last month’s meeting, Mark Kinney, district conservationist for the Natural Resources Conservation Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, advised HEA that if it took used the Judy Rebecca Court route, it should cut alders to no less than 4 feet high. With roots intact, alder stumps can send out new growth. He advised against grubbing the vegetation all the way to the ground.

“Those are not stable soils there,” Kinney said. “You have to be careful how you meddle with those.”

Under the “no adverse impact” section of city code, projects can’t create or aggravate a condition which leads to an unsafe condition. HEA needs a right-of-way permit issued by the Department of Public Works to do utility work. The city has looked at HEA’s plan for the Judy Rebecca Court route and has no objection, City Manager Walt Wrede said. He said HEA told the city there would not be any erosion issues. Wrede also met with Tollefsrud last week.

“Based on that, we don’t think there are going to be a lot of erosion issues. I think the real issue is visibility. This is going to go right in their view shed,” he said. “If there’s something different about HEA’s plan that causes us concern, we’ll get involved,” Wrede added.

Tollefsrud also criticized the design of the Country Club Estates driveway, and its impact on a creek it crosses. She said aerial photographs on the Kenai Peninsula Borough’s parcel viewer Web site suggest the creek has been diverted, and could be increasing erosion on the ravine edge toward her property.

Wrede said that road does cause the city some concerns. It could cause difficulties for police and firefighters to get access.

“This is a long driveway in a steep area with some unstable soils,” he said. “You can see from an aerial photography there’s some problems with it.”

HEA is still looking at possible routes, said Joe Gallagher, a spokesman for HEA. The Judy Rebecca Court route is HEA’s preferred option.

“The way we’ve got is based on what we’re able legally to do,” Gallagher said. “The route we had is the one where the easements are in place.”

The Judy Rebecca Court route goes along the north side of a cul-de-sac at the bottom of Tollefsrud’s property. Alders cover the uncleared right of way. If HEA moved its pole location and route to the south side of the cul-de-sac, it could avoid taking out the thicker alders near Tollefsrud’s land. Gallagher said that’s an option it might consider and will discuss at the meeting tomorrow.

“We’re willing to look at other options,” he said. “Right now it’s still kind of in flux.”

Tollefsrud said she’s worried that with the stakes in and utility locate tagging done, HEA crews are ready to go soon. She has had discussions with lawyers about filing an injunction to stop work until issues about erosion can be fully addressed.

HEA won’t be starting work immediately, Gallagher said — at least until after Friday’s meeting.

“After that, we’re definitely going to have a handle on this situation and where we’re going,” he said.

“We’re under an obligation to get power … but at the same time, we want to work with everybody to get a reasonable solution,” Gallagher said.

Tollefsrud has set up a Web site for people concerned about the project at www.homerhelmsmen.com. She invited neighbors to attend Friday’s meeting at 9:30 a.m. in the yurt by her house on Mount Augustine Drive a mile east of the Baycrest Hill view point. Call 235-7262 for directions.