King George News
Cathy Dyson writes about King George County.
Dominion wants to address the “conspiracy theory”
At last night’s Board of Supervisors’ meeting, Cedell Brooks Jr. brought up some “major concerns” people in Shiloh District had about Dominion Power’s proposed high-voltage line.
Brooks said some people in his district weren’t served by Dominion, so they hadn’t gotten notice of the Aug. 10 open house in their monthly bills. Apparently, they hadn’t seen any of the ads Dominion ran in local newspapers for three weeks or any of the stories written about the project, either.
Brooks was upset that people in his district seemingly hadn’t been notified, and he wanted to give them a chance to comment. Dominion was scheduled to have its last meeting with its Community Input Group, a group of citizens and county officials who are working with the company, on Thursday morning. So, Dominion agreed to have a question-and-answer time for citizens afterwards. That’s scheduled tomorrow from 10:30 a.m. to noon at King George High School.
Brooks said in last night’s meeting that he lobbied for the meeting to be open to the public. “We don’t have closed meetings in King George County,” he said.
Dominion’s communications manager said today that the utility company doesn’t have closed meetings, either. The citizens meetings have been open to the public and advertised on the Dominion website, but no members of the public have attended, said Carla Picard.
She wanted to speak to the “conspiracy theory” that seems to be circulating, that Dominion was trying to sneak around without letting the public know its plans.
She acknowledged that many residents in King George who might be affected by the power line are served by electric cooperatives and not Dominion. That’s why Dominion went to county land records to find names and addresses of all those who would be impacted by any of the five routes Dominion suggested.
The company mailed out 1,100 letters on July 22. Picard said she talked to one King George resident who had shared his concern about not being notified with Supervisor Brooks. That man, along with every neighbor he mentioned, was on the list of people to whom Dominion sent letters, Picard said.
Other King George supervisors at last night’s meeting praised Dominion for its efforts to keep the public informed.
Here’s a link to maps of the five proposed routes, which all start along State Route 3 and end with a new substation in Dahlgren near the Navy base. More information also is available at Dominion’s website. Search for Dahlgren.
