Bermudians want Belco to place all power lines underground but they are unwilling to tolerate either the costs or the disruption necessary to make this goal a reality, a top executive said yesterday.

And if residents ensured that all trees, especially those that have grown close to power lines, are trimmed, many of the power outages that occurred during Hurricane Felix could have been prevented.

Mr. Garry Madeiros, president and chief executive officer at the Bermuda Electric Light Company, made these statements yesterday at a Hamilton Lions Club luncheon.

One week earlier, Hurricane Felix caused sporadic power outages and other damage to residents' homes.

Although he accepted that placing overhead wires underground is a laudable goal which is worth pursuing -- underground wires would be less vulnerable to high winds and felled trees -- Mr. Madeiros was quick to stress the problems the idea presented.

"Trees are an issue,'' he said. "And people must recognise that trees must be taken care of ... it is a cheap way of providing ongoing current (instead) of having everything underground which will take a long time.'' The biggest problem with placing wires underground is financial, he explained.

Two surveys, one by a British consultant and the other by an American were completed in 1988 after Hurricane Emily.

They stated that the cost to place all overhead wires underground would fall between $225 and $235 million.

That, he said, translates into more than $325 million in 1995 when inflation and labour costs are factored in.

The $325 million figure is more than twice the net worth of Belco ($133 million).

Moreover, Mr. Madeiros said that his company did not get a return on their investment when they placed overhead wires below ground.

Furthermore, he said Bermudians generally would be unwilling to pay an extra two cents per kilowatt hour and have this money go toward the cost of the under grounding scheme.

And hotels he said, have already complained that their current power bills are too high, would not tolerate another increase in their utility bills.

Other problems, he pointed out, would be the daily disruption to motorists since work crews have to dig trenches and operate heavy machinery.

Meantime, Mr. Madeiros said that Belco has fulfilled all the recommendations contained in an Emergency Measures Organisation report that was released after Hurricane Emily.

He said that the only recommendation that has not been executed, required Belco to liaise with Government, the Ministry of Works and Engineering and Telco.

That committee was supposed to examine which distribution lines should be placed underground and how that project would be funded over time.

Additionally, the committee was supposed to look at new legislation that would allow work crews to gain access to a resident's property to set up transformers and other equipment.

"If memory serves me correctly,'' he continued, "there were one or two meetings of that particular committee and it petered out. So nothing has progressed from that point in time.'' Mr. Madeiros said there will always be tremendous merit in placing the main distribution lines underground.

"But we've got to put it in perspective with everything else this Country is doing ... all these things cost money and there has got to be a big plan in order for us to be able to fund these things that we would all like to have.''