Attendance for the on-site meeting:
Six employees / sub-contractors from AEP
Six Volunteers from Meeks Mountain Trail Alliance
Hike Time: 90 mins
At the beginning of the meeting AEP let us know they had been in the area and walked several of the properties throughout the valley talking with various property owners. They also stated and understand our position of no impact or encumbrance of the transmission lines. We are clear on this subject and want to continue navigating solutions with AEP to route around MMT and possibly use access roads. We provided a heat map of trail use for the frequency of each trail used. It's no surprise, Young Run, Stonesteetz, Lyle's Mile, Rock Korey, Quick Sands and Kudlak's Kut have the highest frequency of use. The heat map also helped provide how connected the trails are to our community showing the back and forth throughout all the neighborhoods to the trails.
Hike summary:
-AEP recognizes the compact nature of the trails, but they are still considering running a line on the front part of the property
-MMTA shared our concerns that any encumbrance closes the trails period
-MMTA shared its concern for the unknowns of the future, and we see MMT as a protected legacy for 100+ years similar to Central Park NYC
-MMTA shared concerns that if AEP doesn't own the transmission lines in the future that it could change their use and expansion of ROWs or closing the section off completely
-MMTA asked for examples of other transmission lines and where trees have not been cut in free spans near other trail systems
-It does appear AEP understands the value of MMT to our community and is building scenarios to weigh options and provide alternatives
We are hopeful AEP has budgeted for the last 50+ years and saved appropriately through a capital reserve account to upgrade this transmission line and will use whatever means necessary to protect the asset our community has built. An asset, for the health and well-being of the people.
Protecting Trails, Protecting Community, Protecting People
Next meeting: Oct. 29th via web
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