HomeMy WebLinkAbout1976 05-06 No preference for power line route, NSP tells board DISPATCH Thurs., May 6, '76 St.Paul Dispatch (E) 5
No preference for power
line route, NSP tells board
Northern States Power Co. School;and at 7 p.rn.May 19 at way, we would gel objections
(NSP) has no preference be- Mahtomedi Middle School,1520 from the Minnesota Highway
tween the two proposed routes Mahtomedi Ave. Department.It wants to see only
f o r high-power transmission Wallace, in off-the-cuff corn- trees all the way up to Duluth."
lines through the east St. Paul 'ments before the county board, But Wallace suggested that the
suburbs,the Washington Coun- said NSF once thought that the power lines, if located as much
,ty Board was told recently. Grant Township routing for the as one-third of a mile off the
The company once favored a power lines was "financially freeway, could be hidden from
route that cuts through the court- more pleasing." view of motorists in most loca-
ty's Grant Township,NSP StaffHe admitted that until recent- tions.
Assistant Jerry Wallace said. ly the route along the freeway "Right now," he added, "I
BUT AFTER further consider- "was not looked at with anynancam not so sure that there's a to
ation,the company has adopted great pains." or anot benefit along one route
P Y F or another.We would be buying
a neutral stance,he announced. HE EXPLAINED, "We knew some very expensive property in
He said that NSF could just as .that if we went along the free- Grant Township."
easily accept the other alterna-
tive,
tive, a route that follows I-35E
from Maplewood to near County
Road 14 in the Hugo area.From
there, the lines would head
northeast between Horseshoe
and Oneka Lakes in Hugo,then
north in the vicinity of Ingersol
Avenue.
THE LINES,attached to 110 to
150-foot high towers,have been
proposed for a 240-foot wide,
375-mile long corridor between
the Twin Cities and the Canadi-
an border.
NSP and Manitoba Hydro
Electric Co.want approval of the
project as part of a cooperative
agreement. The two companies
would use each other's electrical
generating capacities,starting in
1980.
PUBLIC HEARINGS have
been scheduled on the proposed
east suburban routings for the
power lines:at 9 a.m.May 17 at
White Bear Lake City Hall,250
Miller Ave.;at 7 p.in.May 17 at
t h e Centerville Elementary