Staying on the line

· The New York State Senate will hold its first public hearing on the NYRI power lines in at the Norwich High School on Parkway Avenue in Norwich on June 15 at 6:00 p.m. The hearing, which will be staged by the energy and telecommunications committee, will feature testimony from invited speakers. The public is invited to attend.

· U.S. Congressman John M. McHugh, who represents two counties through which the power lines would run, urged Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman to deny New York Regional Interconnection’s (NYRI) application for the proposed power line area to gain an early designation as a National Interest Electricity Transmission Corridor at the federal level. Joining Congressmen Maurice Hinchey and Sherwood Boehlert, McHugh is the third New York lawmaker in Washington to come out against the project.

· The NYRI application to the Public Service Commission is available for viewing at 30 public libraries along the proposed route of the power lines including:

Deposit Free Library, 159 Front Street, Deposit, NY

Port Jervis Free Library, 138 Pike Street, Port Jervis, NY

Western Sullivan Public Library, Jeffersonville Branch, 19 Center Street, Jeffersonville, NY

Western Sullivan Public Library, Delaware Free Branch, 11 Lower Main Street, Callicoon, NY

· Alan Bowers, a member of the Upper Delaware Council representing Westfall, PA has come up with a new way of referencing the power line company. Rather than saying the letter NYRI, or the full name of the company, Bowers referred to it as “nye rye.”