The Siesta Key Village Association and the Siesta Key Association both will hold their regular monthly meetings this week.
The Village Association meeting will begin at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday, May 1, at the Daiquiri Deck Raw Bar, 5250 Ocean Blvd., Siesta Key.
The SKA will meet at 4:30 p.m. Thursday, May 3, in Room F at St. Boniface Episcopal Church, 5615 Midnight Pass Road, Siesta Key.
Special guests from Florida Power and Light will be present at the SKA meeting to discuss the Smartmeter program the utility company plans for Sarasota County.
SKA President Catherine Luckner recently sent an email to members letting them know that FPL has about 1.5 million of the Smartmeters already installed in Naples and Fort Myers. The utility company plans to begin installation in Sarasota County in the fourth quarter of 2012, Luckner added.
Members desiring more information about the meters in advance of the May 3 SKA meeting could visit www.fpl.com/energysmart/rf.shtml. Among the topics on that site, she wrote, is an explanation of how the Smartmeters function.
Some Siesta Key residents have raised concerns about whether human exposure to the radio frequency FPL uses for the meters could lead to health problems.
The SKA agenda also will feature a presentation on Mote Marine’s Sea Turtle Conservation and Research program.
FPL has an option to opt out of the program, which Sarasota County is considering. Individual account holders may opt out for themselves, however, by contacting FPL and requesting it — but only after jumping some hurdles dealing with the company, will they will grant opting out. A customer calling to request opting out is told that a return call must be received from a representative of FPL in order to be opted out. Although one need not state a reason other than asserting that they prefer to opt out, the FPL representative attempts to discourage opting out and questions why it was requested. When I called I declined to state “a reason” and the representative kept me on the line for some time trying to get me to state one and resorted to presenting arguments against what must be frequent reasons stated. I continued to state that I simply desired to opt out and would like to be put on that list — until the FPL representative gave up. As well as concerns about the radio frequency, objections include the data being gathered about customer use and being broadcast every few hours to FPL and the potential misuse of it. This is not planned as a once a month reading, it will be continuous and data about customer use will be compiled and stored without the customers knowing its use. Seems that nowadays everyone is compiling records and tracking our activities, giving rise to concerns about privacy of personal data! Many jobs will be lost as meter readers are replaced. It would be preferable for the county to make a wholesale opt out, but if customers would prefer it, they need to request opting out and stick to their guns, to assure it.