By MIKE COURSON
Great Bend Post
More than 100 people and some 30 delegates on stage attended Tuesday's tri-county commission meeting featuring elected boards from Barton, Pawnee, and Russell Counties inside the Fine Arts Auditorium at Barton Community College. After more than two hours of discussion about a proposed National Interest Electric Transmission Corridor (NIETC), Pawnee County Attorney Doug McNett presented a letter, addressed to the U.S. Department of Energy, for all three boards of commissioners to sign.
"We needed to memorialize, as (Pawnee County Commissioner Bob Rein) said, tonight's kind of historic situation where three counties come together with unanimity and are saying no," McNett said. "We don't need your help. If we need it, we'll ask for it, but our land is not for sale."
At issue is the Grain Belt Express transmission line and the proposed NIETC that would cut through all three counties. With the federally-proposed corridor come questions about eminent domain and the loss of private land. McNett said electric issues have historically been state issues, and the Kansas Corporation Commission has already sited the Grain Belt Express. Rein said that eliminates the need for any federal intervention.
"As far as a NIETC is concerned, need is part of that process," Rein said. "If Grain Belt Express is already sited, what is the need for a NIETC? Personally, I don't care if it's five miles or five feet, the federal government does not belong in Pawnee County. They don't belong in Barton County, and they don't belong in Russell County."
The letter objecting to federal involvement asks the Dept. of Energy to consider the historical importance of generational farms, the families that reside on that land, and the negative impacts an NIETC could have on future land values, future development, and the environment. All three commissions signed the letter unanimously.
