NORWICH – A $30,000 donation from an anonymous source has infused some much-needed cash into the coffers of a local grassroots organization committed to fighting the proposed NYRI powerline, but will it be enough?
“It’s a shot in the arm,” said Eve Ann Shwartz, co-chair of the group, Stop NYRI. While she and her colleagues say the amount will certainly help wage the legal battle against the high voltage transmission line project, they know, however, that more will be needed to see the fight to the end.
On Thursday night, the opposition group put out a call to local business leaders, asking them to step up their contributions to the cause.
“We’ve got to fight this to the end,” said Stop NYRI’s volunteer fundraising chair Susan Tallman, as she addressed members of the local business community in a meeting co-sponsored by her organization and Commerce Chenango. “Every dollar counts.”
To date, she said, Stop NYRI has received more financial support from private citizens than it has from businesses. The group’s current fundraising goal is to raise $46,000, or $1,000 per mile of the electric transmission line’s proposed route through Chenango and Madison counties. Thanks to the anonymous donation, they are well on their way to reaching that goal.
While some of the money raised by the organization does stay locally to promote the group’s local activities, a large portion of the amount they raise goes to Communities Against Regional Interconnect, a coalition of seven upstate New York counties and five community action groups to which they belong.
According to Tallman, CARI has spent in the neighborhood of $2 million fighting the power line project on both the state and federal level. While this money has been “incredibly well spent,” she added, it pales in comparison to the $25 million NYRI has invested in the project so far despite the fact that they “haven’t even put a shovel in the ground.”
Over the last three years, Stop NYRI has contributed roughly $90,000 to CARI, Tallman said. This year, they plan to be “more ambitious” in their pledge to the organization.
Stop NYRI isn’t the only party kicking in to support CARI’s activities; Chenango County is also a member and financial supporter of the group. According to Richard Decker, chairman of the Chenango County Board of Supervisors, the county has contributed $150,000 to the cause so far.
“We need to continue this fight,” said Decker, who added that another $50,000 could be added to that total by the end of the year.
Even though the proposed route for the 190-mile long transmission line would bisect only a few of the county’s 21 towns, the county supervisors have been united in supporting CARI’s fight against the project, he explained.
“I have never heard a word of opposition from my colleagues about this,” the chairman said.
Tallman’s entreaties helped Stop NYRI secure $1,500 in donations during Thursday’s meeting, by way of a $500 from Mark & Barbara Golden of Golden Artist Colors and a $1,000 pledge from La Maison Blanche.
Sue Evans, who owns and operates Evans Farmhouse Organic Creamery with her husband David, also spoke with Tallman about making a donation.
“This is something we have to support,” said Evans. The Norwich resident and business owner fears the loss of her family’s livelihood because of the proximity of NYRI’s proposed primary route to her family’s farm.
“It would take our organic certification away,” Evans explained. “We’d be a microwave between NYSEG’s line and NYRI. Our house would not be livable space.”
For more information on Stop NYRI, or to make a donation, visit www.nyri.info. Donations can also be mailed directly to Stop NYRI at P.O. Box 254, Hamilton, NY 13346.