The yearslong effort by Winter Park to bury power lines spared most residents from outages last October when Hurricane Milton roared through the region. Now the city is moving to finish the job.

With about 81% of lines underground, city commissioners Wednesday unanimously adopted a $233.2 million budget for fiscal year 2025-26 that increases a portion of residents’ electric bills to keep the work on track to finish by 2030.

Under an amendment Mayor Sheila DeCiccio proposed at the Sept. 10 meeting, what’s known as the “nonfuel charge” on bills will increase Oct. 1 by 7.44% instead of the previously proposed 3%. The proposal passed 3-2 with Vice Mayor Marty Sullivan and Warren Lindsey opposed.

Even with the increase, residents will see a dip in their electric bills because fuel costs ha

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