Mike Ford & Tom Kroll

November 17, 2010

Breckenridge

Intros

Mike Ford & Tom Kroll

Jerry Von Korff

Moi

Gerald & Celine Brudvic – live south of Breckenridge. Live in Wilkin county, 97% tilled, rich farmland. To take up a lot of that for a route that has another area to go doesn’t seem quite reasonable. Infrastructure in the state, Interstate 94, so to put other structures along that route makes sense for several reasons. One being our security system, you put electrical grid work in the middle of nowhere, you don’t have as much observation of that system as along I-94, where you have labor force and easy access to make sure it’s safe. Oppose alternative route.

Harry Whitehead. 2438 – 430th St, Campbell St. I’ve only been here three years, moved from Las Vegas because I was tired of the congestion, and I found this small piece of property that I’m perfectly happy with in my retirement years. On looking at the paperwork, I saw we have two routes, one alternative and one preferred. It dawned on me that the people that put in the highway, had engineers, bright people that they paid a lot of money to, determined that that route was the best. Electrical people also determined through their engineering that I-94 would be the preferred route as opposed to this other one. Some has to do with the soil system. I live in an area that has the thick black heavy clay. Now if you ask growers there, their equipment is almost impossible to get through that muck if it’s wet, it dawned on me that the preferred route would give a good highway system to move equipment and personnel and materials quickly, efficiently. Inclement weather would not be a factor. I’m not an engineer, and they are.

Break

Jay Arnhald, 2931 – 480th St, Campbell

Questions – what impact does a power facility like this present to people living close to it, how will it affect

By cities I have friend who lives about 300 feet from powerline, and if you go under line when it’s running, if you pick up a piece of steel, you’ll get quite a shock out of it. I know this auxillary line is going to go right over the top of several farm sites, these are rather large, and they’re going to be working in their shops and working, doing maintenance, running farming operation, what impacts will this have on their operation.

Jeff Christensen – 2467 – 430th Street, Campbell – Tile C-5, home is about 300 feet from center of county road

Celene Brudvic – live close to other gentlemen that are speaking. My question has to do with initial needs assessment, now long that is good for, how willing are you to look at that again and resassess transmission line. How do we find information, knowing demographics, needs, thigns change and I would like to know where I would find information on that?

Bret Ekness – I think only if there was a substantial and significant change in the Certificate of Need would it get back in front of the Commission, and the Commission would decide if that would impact their decision at the time. Those projects have been certified, based on certain assumptions.

Heydinger – At the time of Certificate of Need proceedings, applicants and other parties analyzed projections of use, conservative and reduced projection of use, there was a range of future need that was considered in that process. Which was about 20% below.

Eknes – recession certainly has had impact, forecasted period is much longer term, there is an assumption that the economy will return, that the demand will return.

Heydinger – it’s about a 20 year window, not just 2 or 3.

Eknes – life of transmission line is much more than that.

Elbow Lake

Craig Hanson – 17990 Co Hwy 82, Fergus Falls, MN – Placement – Q – Why is placing a xmsn line over people’s property affecting public safety better than over Wildlife Management Area. Our lives and public safety should be valued more than any wildlife property. For 21 years, we’ve seen less than 10 people use WMA that powerline could run on and stay on I-94 corridor.

What about overheard electrical hazards of storms, ice build up, 82 was a trunk Hwy 82, old Hwy 59, near Iverson Lake, flooded, will follow inside the RoW line past the truckstop to the I-94 corrdor, bypassing a WMA, there’s 150’ that line could pass up to Big Chief Truckstop to exit 61. Public safety – 3 years ago semi crashed through our trees and landed in our lawn, that’s in the same area that the line would be placed. After looking at the information, the line would cross within 50’ of our porch, standing in front of my house, the powerline si right there. What happens if a truck hits one of those towers, will either land on house, the freeway or the house across the highway. Can a powerline span a couple hundred feet of water? A: Yes, we can span that. Big Chief, goes next to Cedar Park, on west side of Swan Lake. Wife is a health care professional, we use pagers, beepers, broadband, and with this tower coming, I’m worried about EMF, I went on CapX 2020 web site, said to go to state DoH web link and it went to a dead end, the link was D/C due to budget cuts and that all public health is transferred to the PUC, which is the people behind this coming into our area, no possibility of addressing this. Stray voltage.

Larry Schneeberger – aerial applicator, up to three planes flying in and out some times during the summer. (LOCATION?)

Marv Sautell – 2347 Cedar Lane (?), piggybacking on what Craig Hanson said about D-5, request to move alternate near Iverson Lake, I’m part of Cedar Park, we’re near Swan Lake. Request that you take the alternate route around Iverson Lake. Same deviation Hanson was talking about.

Greg Rogers, 168… Own Big Chief, looks like it’s going to go right through the parking lot. Don’t think it’s been thought out very well.

Break

Leland Rogness – Otter Tail Co, 1080 Westside Dr., property within preferred route, and will speak to interests of Otter Tail County, serves as County Commissioner. Asking questions so they become part of the record.

1)  Preferred route has gaslineRoW and gasline within preferred route alongfenceline of I-94. What impact and what correlation do these two easements have. Lahr: No impact. We have our owneasement, they have their own easement. We would sit down to understand their depths, what they’ve got going, any interaction, but I don’t see that you would see an overlap, separate RoW, don’t typically share RoW. Q: So first RoW at fence, and they hold 150’ into farmers property, tnen you would come with your easement one step further into property? If parallel, further into properties.

2)  Reimbursement, easement would bring value to property owner for width of easement, next part, is there additional if a structure is on one’s property, or is it the same reimbursement without a structure? Lahr: Based on easement,width,150 foot wide strip, however long it is, price doesn’t become a concern whether there is a pole. Heydinger: Company doesn’t set price, there’s an outside process, a private landowners doesn’t necessarily have to take company’s offer.

3)  Is each property negotiated on its own merits, and will that property owner have the advantage of whether there will be a structure on his property, that has as significant meaning, as a farmer, has to farm around it, if just aerial, that’s different. Lahr: Issue of pole impact on the ground is to help reduce impacts. Regard to pole placement, once state has selected route and we know what width, then we go out and meet with landowners about easements, preliminary thought about where it would be, we think it would go here, talk to landowner and come to agreement, if we can, put stake in the ground with flag, this is where it’s going to be, and we try to negotiate.

Moi – Buy the Farm 216E.12,Subd. 4

Hammel – MOES has put together landowner rights flyer and it will be distributed in the future.

Birkholz – DoH website, whitepaper, we do maintain it on our website. (I’LL POST IT ON NOCAPX2020.INFO) Name of it is Minnesota Dept of Health White Paper on Magnetic Fields.

Mark Hanson – 10494 ?? Own H&R Construction, close to our property, on NW corner of I-94, south of Dalton, we do a lot of crane lifting, and that would be hazardous.

Brian Hanson – 22817 Cedar Lane, Fergus Falls, SW corner of Swan Lake. For safety issues, take initial route across Iverson Lake DOT Scenic easement, south side of interstate, west side of Iverson Lake. 32 property owners in our development, 10-12 owners near it, affecting around 45 families. For safety reasons and less impact. We came here for scenic beauty.

___ ?_ 10092 Kenworth Dr.. I’m right next to Kenworth Drive. How close, my house is 75 feet from center of the road and if it is on the other side it’s 150 feet from my house. Minimum distance…Lahr: Our goal is to keep houses out of the 150 ft RoW. That’s one of the reasons we start with wider routes.

Have until Jnauary 5, 2011 to send in comments. Send by US Mail or email.