Almost eight miles of 70-year-old transmission lines in Jefferson owned by Central Maine Power Co. will be rebuilt this summer as part of a 22-mile project stretching from Windsor to Warren. The Jefferson Planning Board approved a building permit for the project at its Tuesday, March 7 meeting.
Gary Emond, a consultant to CMP from Power Engineers in Augusta, appeared before the board representing the company. Emond said the Public Utility Commission notified the company that the lines have become a liability and must be replaced. Work should begin in early June and last about 18 months, according to Emond, moving west to east towards Warren.
Seven point eight or 7.9 miles of project run through Jefferson, according to Emond, on a 190-foot right-of-way the company has owned since the 1940s.
All of the poles have likely been replaced since that time, he said, but the transmitters are original from the early 1950s. The wooden H-frame poles will be replaced with singular metal ones.
The transmission line was built in 1981 and last upgraded in 2012, according to the application.
Emond said the change will keep the new wires closer together and leave more space in the right-of-way. The company rebuilds transmission lines by constructing new poles next to the existing ones, de-energizing the existing poles, and reenergizing the new ones. Construction will take place in thirds, he said.
Permits from the Army Corps of Engineers and the Maine Department of Environmental Protection are pending.
Only dangerous trees would be removed, according to Emond, and the extent of other tree work would be limb-cutting in the right-of-way. About four miles of the 22-mile project will involve tree work.
He said the company completed an archeological survey, but areas of concern were not present in the Jefferson stretch.
The existing poles are 50 feet tall, and the new ones will be about 89 feet tall. Conductors will be larger and wires heavier, Emond said. Fewer poles would have meant taller ones to accommodate for sagging in the wires.
Along with the line reconstruction, new nesting platforms will be built for ospreys that have made their homes along the lines. The nests will be relocated before the birds return for the season, Emond said. He has been involved with this process successfully for 30 years.
“It’s kind of an art,” he said of learning the birds’ preferences.
To protect shoreland areas, equipment will move over protective mats to spread out their weight. The treads of excavators are so wide, Emond said, that they put less than half the pounds per square inch of pressure that a human foot does.
Poles will be put in the ground with a direct embed process and no blasting will take place.
After mats are removed, vegetation will “pop right back up,” he said, and the company will re-seed and mulch bare soil, along with follow-up inspections the following season.
“Two years later, you won’t know anybody was there,” he said. “Even a year later.”
Six poles are currently in the shoreland zone and six will replace them. Soil erosion control plans are also in place.
The pole count will remain roughly the same across the 22-mile span, he said, from about 242 existing poles to about 235 replacements.
The board voted unanimously to approve the building permit.
In other business, the board received notice that the Cloud 9 Dispensary marijuana store on Route 17 is being sold, to reopen as another dispensary under the name Snow Tree Farms Medical Cannabis.
According to the town’s current marijuana ordinance, set to expire at the end of March, store owners must have been residents of the town for at least one year. According to board Chair Bill Farren, the business permit does not transfer automatically to a new owner.
Nicholas Nicholson, who is purchasing the store, is set to appear before the planning board in April to seek approval to open.
The board is still considering plans to develop a light ordinance following resident concerns earlier this year about an alleged light trespass by their neighbors. Farren said the town select board decided the planning board would determine whether an ordinance should be enacted.
He received an invitation from the owner of the home with the lights in question to view them, and will do so next week.
Farren said any ordinance that is developed would likely not appear before voters until next fall’s election ballot.
The Jefferson Planning Board will next meet at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, April 4 in the town office.
