BERRYVILLE - The Carroll County Quorum Court passed a resolution Friday opposing plans for a 48-milelong high-voltage transmission line through the western part of the county.
The vote was 10-0, with one justice of the peace abstaining.
The resolution, drafted by Justice of the Peace Lamont Richie, opposes Southwestern Electric Power Co.
’s application with the Arkansas Public Service Commission to build the transmission line.
SWEPCO applied April 3 to build a substation near Berryville and to run a 345-kilovolt power line from there to Centerton in Benton County, at least 48 miles away. That would require about 288 towers, averaging from 130 to 160 feet tall. The project would cost an estimated $116.7 million.
Carroll County has joined with the cities of Beaver, Bentonville, Cave Springs, Eureka Springs, Garfield, Gateway and Springdale to oppose the transmission line, according to the resolution.
Also, 38 landowners have filed petitions to intervene, and a total of 4,494 public comments opposing the transmission line had been received as of late Friday, according to the commission’s website, apscservices.info.
According to the resolution, five of the six proposedroutes, including SWEPCO’s preferred route, “travel mainly through western Carroll County, impacting such popular attractions as the Pea Ridge National Military Park, Thorncrown Chapel, the Inspiration Point Observation area, the historic Beaver Bridge, the White River, the City of Eureka Springs and Lake Leatherwood Park, the Great Passion Play and the Silver Wings Air Field.”
All six routes will affect landowners, according to the resolution.
“Eureka may have its shops and quaint tourist lodgings, its Victorian architecture and nostalgic feel, but the package is far from complete without the tree-covered hills, the meandering streams and rivers, the wildlife, caves, springs, flowers and the multitude of other attractions,” Richie said. “This whole package is what people come to see and experience.”
If negotiations with SWEPCO fail, the electric companywill condemn the land through eminent domain, Ritchie said.
“I believe that this body should, and must, take a stand against this project in its entirety,” he said.
Justice of the Peace Ron Flake said the resolution probably won’t mean much to SWEPCO, but at least the county is on the record as opposing the transmission line.
“I think this resolution is well-meaning, but I think it’s a waste of time,” Flake said during Friday’s meeting, which drew a crowd of about 40 to the Carroll County Courthouse inBerryville.
Sixteen people spoke passionately against the transmission line at the beginning of the meeting. Some choked up as they described the scenic views they believe will be marred by the 150-foot-wide swath cut through the woods for the towers and line. One man prayed with his hands clasped on his chest while Richie read his proposed resolution out loud to the Quorum Court.
John Turner, co-founder of Christview Ministries near Eureka Springs, said the southernmost route proposed by SWEPCO will ruin the view from hisministry center on Rocky Top Road.
“It will scar all of that sensational view that people drive down this road to see and photograph,” said Turner. “There’s no good route through Carroll County.”
Roger Shepperd, who lives near the town of Beaver, said the project isn’t needed and SWEPCO’s environmental-impact study is “flawed” because it doesn’t take into consideration economic or medical impact.
Some Quorum Court members said they should hear from a SWEPCO representative before voting on the resolution.There was no SWEPCO representative at Friday’s meeting.
Justice of the Peace John Reeve of Berryville said the Southwest Power Pool, which consists of nine states and plans for future electric needs, had recommended the new infrastructure.
“All of those people in all of those agencies are not scoundrels,” he said. “After they studied it, they came up with the fact that this area needs more power, and it happens that SWEPCO is responsible for delivering power to this area. … I’m just not comfortable saying that all these people, whoare professionals and are good people, are being dishonest and scoundrels because they say we need more power.”
Reeve moved to table the resolution so they could invite someone from SWEPCO to the next meeting, but his motion failed by a vote of 7-4.
Reeve was the justice of the peace who abstained from the final vote on the resolution.
When informed of the resolution passing, Peter Main, a spokesman for SWEPCO, said the company was informed of the meeting and had an opportunity to send a representative but didn’t because the PublicService Commission has jurisdiction over the approval process.
Main said the commission will have public-comment hearings in Northwest Arkansas this summer, and SWEPCO will have representatives there to answer questions. The proposed dates are July 15 and 16.
“We did not participate because the forum for public input is at the Arkansas Public Service Commission, which has exclusive jurisdiction concerning the construction of major utility facilities,” Main said via e-mail. “We believe the commission will take all public comments, as well as this resolution, into consideration as it deliberates on the final routing decision in this case.”
The Quorum Court resolution opposes SWEPCO’s application in its entirety, so it opposes all six proposed routes.
The Eureka Springs City Council passed a resolution April 30 saying it opposed five of the six routes. The route the council didn’t object to is about 2 miles south of the city and is SWEPCO’s least-preferred route. The new transmission line and Kings River Station are necessary to provide electricity to the area in the future, said Main. The power lines will be used by several companies, including Carroll Electric Cooperative Corp., which serves much of Carroll County as well as customers in 10 other Arkansas and Missouri counties.
The new power line would be primarily in Benton and Carroll counties, but alternate routes could include Madison and Washington counties in Arkansas and Barry and Mc-Donald counties in Missouri.
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 9 on 05/18/2013