| 01.19.05
Power line debate draws anxious
crowd
Concerned
residents seek alternate route, more project detail
BY LISA MCCORMACK, STOWE REPORTER
More
than 30 Stowe residents voiced concerns and asked questions
Monday during a discussion of a proposed $20.3 million power
line upgrade that would serve the greater Stowe area.
The meeting was the first in a series of public hearings that
will be held with representatives from the town, the Vermont
Electric Power Company and the Vermont Department of Public
Service as part of the state permitting process for the project.
While most in attendance agreed that a system upgrade is needed
to meet the rising demand for electricity in the area, some
questioned the current design of the project and asked for
additional design details.
Peter Beddow, whose property would be impacted by the new
line, said that he wants to know where the poles for the lines
would be placed and how tall they would be.
“If we have a 70-foot high pole on a 100-foot right
of way and the pole falls, it could fall onto a home,”
Beddow said.
Resident Lynn Dougherty said she was not told about the project
when she built her home on South Marshall Road two years ago.
She has looked at a map of the power line route and fears
that if the project moves forward one of the new, higher poles
could end up in her living room.
“I needed to get numerous permits from the town and
not once was this mentioned,” Dougherty said. “I
have five acres. If I had known, I would have moved the location
of the house.”
Other residents questioned the dual line, dual pole project
design, which calls for the new, 115-kilovolt power line to
run alongside the existing 34.5-kilovolt line along the Route
100 corridor from Waterbury to Stowe.
The design plan submitted by VELCO with its permit application
in December calls for the existing 34.5 line to be moved within
the current right of way and rebuilt at a cost of about $7
million. On Monday, some residents contended that the new
115-kilovolt line would adequately meet the area’s electrical
needs and that a second line would be unsightly, unnecessary
and unduly expensive.
But VELCO Project Manager Kim Moulton, who attended the meeting,
said a second line would be necessary to back up the 115-kilovolt
line and to transmit additional electricity to the area in
the future as the population grows and the demand on the system
increases. Moulton also said the company has surveyed the
affected neighborhoods and mapped the placement of the new
poles as far away from homes as possible.
The design plan was just one of 12 areas of concern identified
in a letter presented to the select board at the meeting by
the Stowe Power Line Advisory Committee, a citizen’s
group formed last summer to study the project and make recommendations
to town officials.
In their letter, committee members said they want VELCO to
investigate the feasibility of burying the line or running
it through the Waterbury State Forest. They also want the
company to investigate other alternatives to running the power
line from Waterbury to Stowe, which include extending 115-kilovolt
lines in Fairfax and Irasburg to Stowe from the north.
In addition, committee members want VELCO to conduct a study
of the aesthetic impact the project would have on Stowe and
surrounding communities, and they want the company to prove
that there would be no debilitating health effects caused
by the project.
Select board members said several of the issues mentioned
in the letter had already been addressed and that others would
be examined as part of the standard permitting process. Select
Board Chairman Dick Marron supports the upgrade, but said
town officials must balance the concerns of affected property
owners with the electrical needs of the entire town.
“I think that it’s important that the applicant
minimize any adverse effect that’s occurring in your
neighborhoods to the end that it’s reasonable and it
doesn’t place an undue burden on the other rate payers,”
Marron said. “We want to keep the lights on in this
community.”
Lynn Altadonna, who serves on the planning commission and
on the power line advisory committee, recommended that the
town narrow its focus to a few key areas of concern to move
the project forward as quickly as possible.
“My experience in business life has been that the sooner
you get things done, the cheaper the cost,” Altadonna
said. “I would hope that Stowe gets this completed as
promptly and judiciously as possible.”
Deana Frankel, a representative from the Department of Public
Service, attended the meeting to listen to residents’
concerns. She said that her department would review the issues
mentioned in the letter and decide which ones should be investigated
during the hearing process.
“The more we know what is on people’s minds, the
more thorough we can be in the discovery process,” Frankel
said.
The next public hearing to discuss the project will be held
in Waterbury on Feb. 9, and both representatives from VELCO
and the Public Service Department will attend to answer questions.
As of press time, a location and time for the meeting had
not been determined.
Reprinted with permission of the Stowe Reporter
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