Velco in New Haven

Moving here to New Haven 70 odd years ago with no electricity, what a change I've seen. They turned the electricity on our farm on July 26,1946. What progress.

Then Velco came along and bought right-a-ways from our neighbors to put up the lines in 1957. Since that time we have bought land from 4 of our neighbors to farm. Now we farm around 18 set of poles. Every time we work around the line I say, "Thank God someone is getting power because I lived 16 years of my life without it.

Let the people who came here and built homes around the lines, knowing full well that progress was coming on hire their own lawyers to fight Velco. I don't want the town fathers spending our tax money on a no-win problem.

I hope the people in town will take a look at the substation on Route 17 and notice the 3 lines that come out of there and cross our property heading for White Pigment and to Vergennes. This was progress!!

During the ice storm of 1998, we started our tractor and alternator to furnish our power. I took time to set down the fuel we burned for a 24-hour period with running at the right speed. In that 24 hours we pumped 80 gallons of diesel fuel. At that time we gave CVPS $60 a day for power. What a saving to have power lines.

God bless electricity and America.

Earl Bessette
Elgin Spring Farm New Haven, Vt.
January, 2004