BEREA, Ky. (LEX 18) — Hundreds of people turned out for an open house Thursday night, upset over a proposed electrical substation and transmission line in a scenic part of Madison County. The power company says they need the line because of demand. People in the area have a lot of questions about the potential impact.
The part of Madison County just east of Berea is home to The Pinnacles, owned and maintained by Berea College. Outside Magazine called them the best hiking trails in Kentucky.
"Right now, it's pretty unhampered. You can look out and you can see very, very far and it's absolutely beautiful," said Lydia Kitts.
LEX 18 highlighted the trails as part of our "Spotlight on Berea" series last week. After that story aired, people started reaching out to us about this project — a proposal by East Kentucky Power Cooperative to create a new substation and 8.5 miles of transmission lines. EKPC hosted an open house Thursday evening to answer questions.
"As of right now, since 3:00, we've had 301 people show up," Kitts said, glancing at the counter she was using to keep tabs on the crowd.
Kitts is one of the people who came out to ask questions. Some asked why they couldn't build solar infrastructure or why the lines couldn't be buried, or how it might impact nearby water sources. The proposed line would run through the area that includes The Pinnacles, Owsley Fork, and The Battle of Big Hill. Kitts is concerned about the environmental, economic, and historic impact. She's concerned any impact on the view from The Pinnacles could hurt the local economy.
"If that is hampered, it sounds silly, but it will impact tourism. It will impact the number of people that come hiking at it, because you don't want to go hike to the top and see something hideous or something that the view is marred and it will be where it's going to be located," she said.
Joe Settles is the EKPC manager of member services tasked with answering questions tonight. He said the new facility is needed because a nearby substation is serving the highest number of customers in their system and they need to offset some of that load. The new substation would be near Kentucky 421 and Red Lick Road, with the transmission line running south to an existing line in Jackson County. Settles said he appreciates the community's passion.
"We understand those concerns and we'll take those back and see what we can do to best accommodate and alleviate those concerns for the public," he said.
From here, Settles said, they'll start to notify landowners who might be affected by the transmission line and work on negotiating agreements with people to get it built.
