By Sue Moore
A public meeting was held in Schoolcraft in January by American Electric Power, owner of Indiana Michigan Power, to provide information about a new transmission line proposed between Vicksburg and Schoolcraft substations. The company shared information about the proposed routes and the process for submitting comments on the proposal.
The $30 million investment includes retiring the substation in Schoolcraft on Hager and S. 14th Street, replacing it with a new one to be called the Kalamazoo station. The Vicksburg substation will be expanded and upgraded.
There are two route options. One follows the railroad tracks similar to the existing power line. The second route mostly follows W Avenue. A part of that route crosses the entrance to the Greensborough residential area and then north to the present substation on First Street in Vicksburg.
According to an Indiana Michigan spokesperson, Maggie Beggs, the new installation would build redundancy into the transmission system, forming a loop so that if one line goes down, the other is still in operation. That should reduce power interruptions and outages and add reliability to customers.
It appears that the residents of Greensborough, a neighborhood near the Angels Crossing course in Vicksburg, is staunchly against the W Avenue route and plan to fight that configuration, according to Mark Maki, a Vicksburg resident.
A map and timetable for the proposal is available at http://www.aeptransmission.com/michigan/Vicksburg-Schoolcraft/timeline.html.