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17N lit 71 It ;AR4 It It yF,[L I =' • �,ti -JtI/p - - ?` ~'., i 3 ,,av :1 ' 'S=i'.1 i"Zy.j•, a •&'�:'r+- ;;iti t. '04 �.''. 66 ItAolt I. I It It It ,, + I , + 1 ; CARRIE FEDER AND RANDALL EVANSCITIZE ABOVE, ARE ACTIVOPPOSING IN A „ I thought i t was a joke , CITIZENS GROUP OPPOSING THE ATHENS POWER PLANT. IN 18271 THOMASCOLEPD%M" "VIEWSIM says Carrie Feder. " We thought ; THE ROUND-TOP," OPPOSITE I something that monstrous j believe the number of cheap houses begging for restoration. " could n ever b e built i n a p ri st i n e Today, other newcomers pour thousands into failing Georgians, area I i I<e this . Greek revivals, and Queen Annes. As fresh coats of paint surfaced i throughout the village , some hoped the town would become a new center of the arts—until a small legal notice in the back of the I local paper in the fall of 1998 revealed a plan to drag Athens back "Who will come now to preserve the houses that won't see . to its commercial past. PG & E announced its proposal for the the next century without help?" Feder asks , "If no one comes F Athens Generating Project in the Catskill Daily Mail. here to save these buildings , it's the same as destroying them . "When I read it, I thought it was a joke, " says Feder. "We Who will want to invest in these buildings next to one of the E thought something that monstrous could never be built in a pris- largest power plants in the country? tine area like this . When we attended a public hearing and saw actual maps of where the plant would be located, it sank in. We figured we'd better do something. " The couple joined a dozen NE BRIGHT DAY IN AUGUST , Feder, Evans , and I, other Athenians to organize STOPP (Stand Together Oppose alongwith Mark Teague, an active STOPP member Power Plant) , first circulating a petition, then planning rallies, and author and illustrator of children' s books , j lobbying state officials , and finally hiring attorney Kenneth drive west from Athens toward the Catskill Mountains, past colo- McCallion, a Manhattan-based lawyer who had won $ 5 billion vial farms with wide-faced Dutch barns . As we pass each field, i in punitive damages for Alaskans after the Exxon Valdez oil spill . busy with goldenrod and Queen Anne's lace, I imagine Cole and f This June , STOPP sued the Army Corps of Engineers, alleg- his followers—Frederic Church, Jasper Cropsey, John Kensett I in g that the agency failed to conduct impact statements under setting up their easels to paint the mountains and river, the National Environmental Policy and National Historic "This area is not only famous for the history that hap - Preservation acts . The group also filed a motion to halt con- pened here, " Teague says . "It's famous as a landscape . With struction of the plant. A large sign in the center of town reads smokestack industry you' ll never be able to come to the Hud- `Athens Generating, It's not over yet! " but even before the son Valley and see it through the eyes of the Hudson River E court decides , Feder and Evans feel somewhat defeated. School painters ; you won't see what was here to inspire an ' i t� 1 . NOVEMBERIDECEMBER 200I t 37 I 1