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Douglas County, ATC Strike Tentative Deal
by Merilee Reinke of The Daily Telegram
Friday, August 19th
A tentative agreement has been reached between American Transmission Co. and Douglas County.
According to Mark Williamson, American Transmission Co. vice president of major projects, an "agreement in principle" was settled by Thursday afternoon, the second day of talks.
Supervisors received their first look at the proposal Thursday night while in closed session following their regular board meeting. The agreement will go before the Douglas County Board on Sept. 15.
While Williamson said he could not discuss the specifics of the agreement, he would say it addresses environmental concerns and bases easement payments on fair market value. He said everyone taking part in the two-day talks felt the board would accept the agreement upon seeing the details.
"We certainly think it is a fair agreement and I think their negotiation team thinks so, too," Williamson said. "I am happy it's finished."
"Considering the options we had, we probably couldn't expect much more," Doug Finn, Douglas County Board chairman, said when asked if he thought the agreement equitable.
Finn said the county has limited choices since a new law allows condemnation of public property for electric transmission lines if the local government and utility cannot broker a purchase agreement in 180 days.
Supervisor Mark Liebaert, who was not part of the county's negotiating team, said he hoped most of the board's wishes were met. If not, he said, he would be in favor of having an arbitrator come make a settlement.
"My job at the county level is to protect the county's interests," Liebaert said. "If we are not getting what we want, there is no need to settle." Williamson said as part of the deal, ATC has agreed to dismiss its lawsuit against the county. ATC filed the suit in June after the county last spring refused to grant easements onto county-owned property. The transmission line, which runs from Duluth to Wausau, crosses 13 miles of county land. A majority of the transmission line travels along existing easements, leaving ATC seeking permission to cross 2.5 miles of county property.
With a proposal on the table, supervisors voted to table a resolution setting a budget cap of $7,000 to finance attorney expenses. The money would have paid for the services of John Prentice, a Milwaukee lawyer hired two months ago to represe's February refusal to grant easements to the company.
If it had been approved, $4,000 would have been taken from the corporation counsel budget and $3,000 from the contingency fund to finance attorney expenses.
Development of a tentative agreement trails on the heels of talks between ATC and Washburn County, which were concluded on Tuesday. The agreement with Washburn County will go before their County Board in October.
According to Williamson, construction of the controversial 345-kilovolt line, which started last week in Marathon County, will continue "round the clock" and extend into the winter months. He said plans are to begin construction within Douglas County in the early part of 2007. The $420 million power line is expected to be operational by 2008.
The Lake Superior chapter of Save Our Unique Lands meets on the 3rd Monday of each month at 7pm at the Town Hall in Bennett, WI (just off of U.S. Hwy. 53).
Contact us if you need a ride to the meetings and we'll try to hook you up with someone else who is going. If you are unable to attend meetings, but would like to work with us we encourage you to contact us by sending an email to northernadam@yahoo.com.
Enter your email address into the box above to sign up for Lake Superior SOUL's email announcement list. By signing up you can stay in the loop about upcoming meetings, protests and other events. We don't share our mailing list with any other groups. And don't worry, this is a low volume list that won't flood your email box!
For more information about the Lake Superior chapter of SOUL, or if you have any questions about the line, email us at northernadam@yahoo.com, call (715) 398-5234 or write to us at the following address:
8585 E. Baldwin Avenue
Solon Springs WI 54873