NORWICH – Todd Barnes says he wishes he still had the letter sent by state Senator Tom Libous, congratulating him and his brother Jody on the successful up and coming business they started in Chenango County.
“It was a letter saying it was good to hear about a business that was doing well,” said Barnes, co-owner of Barnes Bluestone in Norwich, whose stone sales and custom cutting operation on East River Road would be engulfed by the proposed $1.6 billion New York Regional Interconnection power line. “Then you turn around a year later, and they (NYRI) want to take out one of the businesses that was being commended.”
While anger and uncertainty along the route may not be calmed until there’s a final decision made on the project, the Madison and Chenango County opposition group STOP NYRI has organized a meeting to listen to the public, and make the facts of the case clear.
“It’s time to hold a public meeting to lay out the issues in clear and understandable terms,” said Norwich resident Perry Owen, a member of STOP NYRI. “The last NYRI informational meeting left residents very confused regarding the company’s plan.”
STOP NYRI representatives have gathered a panel of local experts and government officials to answer questions about the power line’s status, along with questions regarding the possible health effects, environmental effects, impacts on property values and impacts on local economies it could incur.
Norwich resident Jo Schel wants to know what citizens can do better to be successful against such a power line project – where other communities have failed.
“How can this community protect itself from this power line, from a company such as this?” asked Schel, whose property lies on the NYRI path near the bottom of Tanner Hill. “It impacts every facet of people’s lives, one way or another. What can we do that would be different so we can beat this thing?”
Chenango County Planning Director Donna Jones said keeping the issue in the forefront and taking the arguments beyond local borders should be important focal points. “This has become an upstate versus downstate thing; we never intended that,” said Jones, who will be one of the meeting’s panel members. “We need to educate people downstate that this is not a good proposal.”
NYRI contends the 400,000 volt line, that would run 200 miles from Oneida to Orange County, would alleviate downstate energy constraints and increase the state’s overall energy reliability. However, the Public Service Commission, New York state’s power line siting authority, turned back the private Albany-based company’s Article VII siting application because it was deemed deficient in several areas; specifically stating that NYRI did not prove the project would increase reliability. At two separate state Senate hearings, NYRI also admitted the project would raise upstate utility rates upstate $166 million dollars annually (by decreasing the electricity supply), and would have “intangible” benefits for upstate residents living with the line, because they could not tap into the electricity.
“If it comes down through here it’s all for the personal gain of that company,” said Barnes. “There have got be more economically feasible ways than to destroy hundreds of acres from here to New York City.”
The public forum will be at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday in the Norwich High School Auditorium on Midland Drive in Norwich. Scheduled speakers to be on the expert panel are STOP NYRI co-chair Eve Ann Shwartz, Donna Jones for Communities Against Regional Interconnect, Realtor Bruce Beadle on property values, Chenango County Farm Bureau President Bradd Vickers on agriculture, MaryJo Long on eminent domain, Troy Bystrom on environmental issues, Dr. Larry Rosenblum on health issues, Assemblyman Cliff Crouch (R-Guilford) to moderate, and state Senators Jim Seward (R- Milford) and Tom Libous (R-Binghamton) will also provide presentations. It was not confirmed by press time if the Public Service Commission would be available for the meeting.