Seven members of the community were able to attend -- many thanks for that, the meeting was at an inconvenient time and I’ll try to give more advance notice in the future. We asked lots of questions and gained some interesting information:

• Bern Township has so far only approved Phase 1 of the Berks Park 183 project. As the township must also approve all subsequent phases, this provides us with possible leverage should that prove strategically useful. (Mindful of the “legal opinion” letter on the Bern Township website regarding what they supposedly do and do not have the power to disapprove, I have obtained a copy of the Pennsylvania Municipalities Planning Code to further investigate for myself the extent to which the township could potentially put the brakes on the project.)
• BCIDA board members said they planned Berks Park 183 around an initial 3-megawatt transmission line buildout that it paid for (and said the upgrades to the Muhlenberg Substation are already complete), and that the Van Reed Transmission Project is not something they asked for and is rather intended to serve the overall needs of that area. But they readily acknowledged the increased development opportunities presented to them by having more power available (heavier industry, refrigeration facilities, etc.).
• The BCIDA board says that the requirement in the Phase 1 plans for underground cables only refers to cables on-site.
• I requested a copy of the EPRI report from which the BCIDA board drew its conclusions, and was told that they will look into making this available to the community. (I was given a board member’s business card and told to follow up with him.)
• I pointed out that the BCIDA is a major Met-Ed customer and that the BCIDA’s mission is supposed to include environmental preservation and service to the community, and asked that they push Met-Ed to support the alternate route proposed and supported by several of my neighbors who were in attendance and who arranged to send that route information to the BCIDA.

While our main opponents are clearly Met-Ed/FirstEnergy and its planning subcontractor, there can be no doubt that the Berks Park 183 project and the decisions it has made on the nature of its desired tenants contribute substantially to the “need” for the Van Reed Transmission Project. How we handle that fact going forward is something to think about carefully.