County unites against Valley North transmission line

GRANTSVILLE, W.Va. (WCHS) — A community in west central West Virginia is doing everything it can to prevent a transmission line from cutting through the heart of their county.

There was overwhelming support for a resolution to oppose Valley North’s plans at a Calhoun County Commission meeting Monday night in Grantsville. That’s where people from across the county united around a unanimous vote to keep Valley Nroth from building the line. All three commissioners signed the resolution on the steps of the county courthouse after the vote was made unanimously inside.

“All those in favor of approving the Resolution of Opposition signify by saying, ‘aye,’ motion carries,” said commission president Eric Lupardus.

The 260-mile transmission line would cut through 15 counties in West Virginia and help offset grid stress from proposed data centers across three states.

“It’s overwhelming support that we need to be in opposition of it,” Lupardus said.

No one in Calhoun County, not a single person, has come to the commission in support of the Valley North transmission line project, Lupardus said. The commission meeting Monday night in Grantsville had standing room only.

“I’m not sure where this benefits our county at all not even from a tax base,” said Dan Sillaman, who owns multiple businesses. I have a meat market. Ninety percent of that meat comes off of my farm. This greatly effects me. When they talk about grazing rights I went and researched this. Cattle won’t graze underneath these lines because of the static electricity and the humming. They come and they spray these arial lines and they spray them pesticides therefore I no longer want to sell meat to you.”

Farm owner Loren Howley said her farm is adjacent to the proposed line, which Sillaman had said would reduce her property value.

“Turning this beautiful place into an industrial area on top of which, as Bob pointed out, we get no benefit and then I wonder do we even need these data centers in this country anyway? These data centers are to power AI which is going to take peoples jobs away. How does that help anybody?” she asked the packed meeting.

The commissioners were talking about Calhoun County’s strengths and future expansion projects in tourism. Business owner Bob Gregory, along with others Monday night, talked about how the proposed transmission line would hurt tourism there.

“Our mountains look stable but they’re not ,” Gregory said. “You start punching holes here and there and as the water moves we end up with slips and other impacts into that type of excavation into the soil.”

Staff with Valley North have said that the transmission line would create construction jobs and build out the possibility of strengthening local grids along its path.

Lupardus said the company had refused an invitation to host a town hall to talk about those benefits.

“Put it in writing. Send it to us. Show us proof,” the commission president said.

As petitions were being signed outside the courthouse, Lupardus said he’s looking at the upside of the situation even if every effort in his county can’t stop the transmission line.

“It’s a bipartisan opportunity for our county to actually come together, work together and kind of heal in ways we haven’t in the past,” he said.

The Calhoun County commissioners said they plan to send Monday night’s resolution to the West Virginia Public Services Commission which they say have eminent domain of the lands where the project would be constructed at. The Commission also said they plan on trying to unite all 15 counties where the line would be built through — in opposition.