Agenda - 12-01-1997 - 4a - Laserfiche WebLink

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Attachment 4 9 �! Piedmont Electric Membership Corporation loF—�MA- General Office:P.O.Drawer 1179 • Hillsborough,N.C.27278 • (919)732-2123 • N.C.WATS: 1-800-222-3107 Fax: (919)644-1030 Branch Office:P.O.Box 1327 • Roxboro,N.C.27573 • (910)599-0151 • Fax:(910)597-9088 November 24, 1997 Mr. William L. Crowther Chairman, Orange County Commissioners P. O. Box 8181 Hillsborough,North Carolina 27278 Dear Mr. Crowther: Thank you for your letter of November 20, 1997. I am sorry to read of your disappointment in the announcement of Piedmont Electric Membership Corporation's selection of Route C for our transmission line project. You may recall that I spoke with you by telephone the day of the County Commissioners' Meeting regarding this issue. I understood that siting of our transmission line route was not an agenda item for your meeting. Piedmont EMC anticipated that citizens who came to the meeting to speak on the siting process would be allowed to do so in accordance with your practice of allowing concerned citizens to speak their mind on any issue that they found important whether it was an agenda item or not. Richard Mabbott from Piedmont EMC attended the meeting primarily to respond to any questions that the County Commissioners might have had. Thus, we were surprised that the County Commissioners took any action. Piedmont EMC had anticipated announcing a decision regarding a preferred transmission route around the first of the year. We were able to accelerate that decision thanks to the rapid response from the public once the four alternate routes were proposed. A significant portion of the work required to evaluate the four proposed routes was completed prior to our public workshop on November 6. The purpose of that meeting was to gain additional public comment on the four alternatives. I would remind you that all of the County Commissioners were invited not only to that meeting, but to the earlier meeting on July 31. When you held your meeting on November 18, 1997, we had already made the decision to choose Route C as our preferred route and we were in the process of implementing our communication plan to announce the selection of our preferred route. On November 19, we were in the process of notifying landowners along Route C to discuss the purchase of the necessary right of way, and once we had done that, our intent was to announce the decision to all the landowners in the study area. This was accelerated only when it became clear that there was nothing to be gained from any further delay in the decision; to do so only keeps all of the potentially affected land owners in abeyance as to any prospective plans regarding their property and further heightens their anxiety. It would be disingenuous and perhaps even deceptive for Piedmont to postpone a decision that it already had reached only to present the appearance that we were pondering that decision as we awaited the December 1 meeting. Serving Orange, Person,Caswell, Alamance, Durham, and Granville Counties