Local residents gathered at the Comfort Inn in Martinsburg earlier this week for an open house they hoped would shed some light on a proposed 765-Kv transmission line that will be coming through the Eastern panhandle.  PATH, or the Potomac Appalachian Transmission Highline, is a nearly 250 mile high-voltage power line with an estimated cost of $1.8 billion.  The joint venture by Allegheny Energy and American Electric Power is designed to avoid electrical overload in the Mid-Atlantic region, which could be overloaded as soon as 2012.One of the biggest concerns many residents had was how closely the lines might run to their property.  Steve Klein, a local resident, came to the event hoping to see if a power line would be passing by his home.  He said that the open house was very informative, and felt that the power lines will be beneficial to the local area.Representatives from the project were at the open house to assist people with viewing aerial photos and maps illustrating the proposed placement of the lines.  Berkeley County Commission President Steve Teufel attended the meeting and said that given the scale of this project, he wants to make those maps and photos more accessible for area property owners who may not be able to make it out to these evening meetings.  Teufel says he plans to get in touch with the County Planning Department’s GIS coordinator to get those maps downloaded onto the county commission website within the next week.
Similar meetings are scheduled for Jefferson and Morgan Counties, who may also be affected by the project.  The first is at the Quality Inn Hotel and Conference Center in Harpers Ferry on August 11, and the other will be at the Homestead Restaurant in Berkeley Springs on August 14.  Both meetings are scheduled to run from 5:00pm until 8:00pm.  

Categories: Local News
Tags: Berkeley County, Electricity, martinsburg