Alna’s planning board Aug. 3 passed Central Maine Power’s corridor expansion 4-0. En route to that vote in the in-person and Zoom meeting, the board also passed verbatim CMP’s proposed facts and conclusions.

 

Resident Cathy Johnson took issue with one of the herbicides CMP uses, according to information board chair Jim Amaral requested last month. Johnson asked the board to have CMP manage vegetation mechanically.

 

The board does not have jurisdiction on pesticides, Maine Department of Environmental Protection does, past planning board member Jeff Spinney said. “The board can only do what the board is entitled to do,” Spinney said.

 

“Which is to protect the water quality and health and safety of residents,” Johnson said.

 

The board then reviewed Alna’s shoreland zoning Johnson cited, and issued no condition.  

 

CMP plans about 5.3 miles of new line and 48 poles in Alna as part of an about 26 1/2-mile, 345-kilovolt line from the Cooper’s Mills substation to the Maine Yankee substation in Wiscasset, Gary Emond of POWER Engineers in Freeport told the board July 6. The new line will run between the two already in CMP’s rights of way in town, Emond told the board then.

 

Amaral called the Aug. 3 meeting historic, the town’s first hybrid meeting with the public attending in person and remotely. The board meets next on Sept. 7.