“I’d just as soon they stayed away from (my property,) but you can’t fight it,” Bruce McMillian said about a set of high-voltage power lines that East Kentucky Power Cooperative proposes to run across Madison County from a generating plant in Clark County to a substation near Lancaster in Garrard County.
McMillian, who lives on Dale Hollow Lake near Byrdstown, Tenn., drove to Richmond on Thursday with his wife to attend an open house that EKPC conducted at the Best Western-Holiday Plaza on the Eastern Bypass to provide information to property owners potentially effected by the new set of lines.
McMillian said he owns property near the Garrard County substation.
“You can fight them, but you can’t win,” McMillian said. “You’d just end up losing money in attorneys’ fees, so I guess we’ll just roll with the punches.”
Macmillan’s wife said, “We don’t like power lines, but we realize they are necessary. We like to flip a switch and have the lights come on.”
EKPC, a non-profit power generating cooperative, will seek to purchase easements with property owners along a corridor 150 feet wide that will run for about 36 miles, mostly in Madison County, said company spokesman Nick Comer.
As a public utility, EKPC has the power of eminent domain to condemn the property of unwilling sellers.
For most of its length, the new corridor will parallel a set of existing EKPC lines, Comer side. As the line passes Richmond to the northeast, crossing Jacks Creek and Tates Creek roads, EKPC is looking at two alternatives corridors, both with wide latitude.
After meeting with EKPC officials, Jeptha Fortney, who owns farmland in the Red House community, said, “We live with a set of power lines that already runs across our property. I guess we can live with another one.”
Fortney would like for the new lines to follow a different path from the existing set, however.
“We told them we’d rather have the new lines run along the south side of our property instead of parallel to the existing lines on the north side,” he said. “That would put it farther away from our barn.”
“That’s the kind of information we were looking for at these open houses,” Comer said as he and EKPC employees were packing up their displays. “To the extent possible, we will try to accommodate the property owners’ desires.”
Some 77 property owners and 17 other interested persons attended the Richmond open house. Up to 171 property owners in Madison County could be affected by the new lines, Comer said.
EKPC will attempt to minimize impacts, visual, environmental and otherwise,” Comer said. The lines will probably be borne by steel, H-frame supports. Right-of-way negotiations will be conducted in the spring of 2007 with construction likely to begin in 2008 with completion in 2009.
“The new lines are necessary,” Comer said, “to keep pace with the tremendous growth in Kentucky and the accompanying demand for electricity.”
EKPC generates electricity for 16 local cooperatively distributors in Kentucky and will soon add a 17th.
Bill Robinson can be reached at brobinson@richmondregister.com or at 623-1669, Ext. 267
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Property owners discuss power line proposals
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Opening day of Paradise Cove Family Aquatic Center coincided with a spike in temperatures Friday which reached 90 degrees. The facility, located in Richmond’s Lake Reba Park, will be open through Sept. 3. Regular hours are 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 1 to 6 p.m. Sunday.
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Paradise Cove open through Labor Day
Opening day of Paradise Cove Family Aquatic Center coincided with a spike in temperatures Friday which reached 90 degrees. The facility, located in Richmond’s Lake Reba Park, will be open through Sept. 3. Regular hours are 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 1 to 6 p.m. Sunday.
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Dump of the Day
An old mattress, a car seat and other debris sit Friday afternoon on North Street between Fourth and Fifth Streets where it was first spotted Thursday. The “Dump of the Day” is a recurring series the Richmond Register publishes to highlight illegal trash piles and push local governments to cite perpetrators and get illegal dumps cleaned up. See Sunday’s Richmond Register to read a copy of the city’s ordinance related to trash pickup.
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Undefeated academic team brings pride to Madison Middle School
Madison Middle School 6th and 7th grade academic teams have been undefeated for the last two years.
The 8th grade team also has done well, having some students qualify to compete at the state level. -
Woman fends off burglar with knife
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Man is indicted on additional sex charge involving teen in 1998
A man already accused of sex abuse in November 2011 has been indicted on a charge of first-degree rape involving a child in 1998.
Charles W. Peyton, 63, of East Irvine Street, was indicted Wednesday by a Madison grand jury. He used “forcible compulsion” to have sexual intercourse with a 14-year-old girl between March 1 and May 1 in 1998, according to the indictment.
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Paradise Cove open through Labor Day
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H.S. SOFTBALL: Wilder throws one-hitter, Central blanks Southern 4-0
Mackenzie Wilder took a no-hitter into the seventh-inning and Madison Central picked up its fourth straight softball district championship, beating Madison Southern 4-0 Wednesday night at Gertrude Hood Field at Eastern Kentucky University.
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H.S. BASEBALL: Indians roll to sixth straight title
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GLENMORE: Pendergrass and East champs at MCC
Eighteen twosomes teed it up over the weekend at the Madison Country Club in the Men’s Annual Member/Guest Tournament and Skip East stepped into the winners circle with a thirty-six hole total of 122.
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H.S. SOFTBALL: Wilder throws one-hitter, Central blanks Southern 4-0
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Happy are they who finish what they start
Happy is that people, that is in such a case: yea, happy is that people, whose God is the Lord.
— Psalm 144:15 - Looking at various things
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- Viewpoints
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Republicans are making some noise
FRANKFORT — Last week’s news was mostly about Tuesday’s primary election but some Republicans who were not on the ballot also had interesting things to say.
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