Local governments on Hatteras and Ocracoke Islands say they want to come to an agreement on reimbursements for a recent power outage without going to court.
Workers with PCL Construction accidentally severed a transmission line that knocked power out on both islands for a week at the peak of tourism season.
Tom Pahl represents Ocracoke on the Hyde County Board of Commissioners. He said the county is working with the state Attorney General's office to gather information from local workers and business owners.
“It's more a matter of 'Here what's what the losses amount to and we would like to work this out with you - PCL - outside of the courtroom',” Pahl said.
A handful of class action lawsuits stemming from the incident have already been filed. Pahl says PCL has taken responsibility for the incident, and is willing to make a deal. It's not yet clear how much revenue was lost from the outage.
“It might look a lot like arbitration, although we aren't going into it with the idea that we're going to settle for anything less than the full amount of each business and individual's loss,” Pahl said.
Pahl and his wife co-own a retail business on Ocracoke Island.