Attendance for the web meeting:
Eight employees / sub-contractors from AEP
Six volunteers from Meeks Mountain Trail Alliance
Call time: 57 mins
Several from AEP were absent due to the recent floods in WNC. Their team is working hard to restore power. Grateful for the men and women helping assist in their efforts.
The overall tone on the call was much different. It appeared they had studied the line option north of the interstate but felt it wouldn't work with the new sub-station location. We need to understand this more, but we'll leave that for another day.
Call summary:
-AEP was a bit anxious to let us know they are studying all options in more depth and felt they may have an alternative but have a lot of work to do before disclosing to the public
-They did dial in on the line that would possibly be installed up to Young Run and across Stonestreetz, Lyle's Mile, Kudlak's Kut, Sender Ella, Super Sizemore, Quick Sands, and Prisk Connector. We reiterated any form of encroachment on the trails with transmission lines would close Meeks Mountain. This line alone would encumber over 30+ points and would expose MMT in more ways than one. It's like placing your foot in the sand and you can wiggle however you want in the future
-MMTA did provide that the current access road to the cell tower and the Backcountry may be a good option for them to use if they need access to the lines that would route around MMT
They have options and we are all confident they will find an alternative. They plan to walk the line route options the week of Oct 14th and would like to meet MMTA on site to learn more and hike a couple of the trails. We are hopeful a hike on the trails together will be fruitful and confirms our sentiment of no impact/encumbrance.
Protecting Trails, Protecting Community, Protecting People
Next meeting: Oct. 16th on site at the cell tower landing pad
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