News

County commissioners put power line on agenda

By Bill Moss, Published: September 3, 2015

The Henderson County Board of Commissioners for the first time has scheduled the Duke Energy transition line as a discussion agenda at a board meeting.

Residents spoke during the public comment time before the Aug. 3 commissioners meeting, urging the board to oppose the high-voltage line crossing Henderson County.

The Board of Commissioners was the only local elected body that did not adopt a resolution or write on a letter expressing a viewpoint before Duke Energy’s comment deadline of Aug. 31. Instead, County Manager Steve Wyatt worked with the executive director of the public staff of the Utilities Commission to arrange a public meeting. That meeting is at 6 o’clock tonight at the Blue Ridge Conference Hall at BRCC.

“What we’re planning to do basically is to take all the information that we have before us including information that we’ll get tonight and discuss the situation and see whether or not we want to do a resolution or what position we want to take,” Board of Commissioners Chairman Tommy Thompson said. “Nothing is predetermined at this point, simply because we’ve been trying to gather all the information we possibly could. This will be a discussion and we’ll deal with it from there and hopefully come up with something at that time that we can afford to inform the public what our position is — being a resolution or whatever.”