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View Full Version : VT farm spared from DHS eminent domain grab




LittleLightShining
06-04-2010, 01:37 PM
Background info here: http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?t=245920

Morses Line border crossing to close (http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/article/20100604/NEWS02/100603031/Morses-Line-border-crossing-to-close)
By Matt Sutkoski, Free Press Staff Writer • Friday, June 4, 2010

http://cmsimg.burlingtonfreepress.com/apps/pbcsi.dll/bilde?Site=BT&Date=20100604&Category=NEWS02&ArtNo=100603031&Ref=AR&MaxW=580&Border=0&q=90

The border crossing at Morses Line in the town of Franklin will close rather than undergo a controversial expansion, Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said Thursday — and the owners of an adjacent dairy farm are cheering.

Leahy said U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has agreed to his request to close the facility. The department confirmed the closure late Thursday.

The move is a victory for the Rainville family, which had been fighting the proposal by the federal government to expand and renovate the crossing. The renovations would have meant the government would take 2.2 acres from the Rainvilles, whose dairy farm sits near the crossing. The Rainvilles said the land seizure would have crippled the farm and possibly forced it out of operation.

Brian Rainville, the farmers’ son, said Thursday he was elated by news of the closure.

“It’s been a pretty amazing afternoon,” he said. “The process worked.”

Homeland Security received $420 million from the federal bailout to modernize land ports; about $5 million was allocated for the Morses Line project.

Customs officials initially wanted to take 10 acres from the dairy farm, then cut it to 4.9 acres, warning family members in a letter that if they didn’t agree to sell for $39,500, the land would be seized through eminent domain. Last month, officials reduced that amount they sought to acquire to 2.2 acres.

Rainville praised Leahy and the rest of the Vermont congressional delegation for asking questions about the proposal and pressuring Homeland Security to close the crossing, or at least to do something so the Rainville farm would be unaffected.

“I didn’t expect anything this quickly,” Rainville said.

A May 23 public meeting with federal officials in Franklin regarding the Morses Line proposal brought out a crowd who spoke against building a new port of entry. Rainvillle also testified last week at a Congressional hearing about the matter and won a promise of support from Rep. James Oberstar, D-Minn., chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. Oberstar said he would ask Napolitano to reconsider the project.

The closure will come after a public comment period, consultations with people and organizations involved in the border crossing and further assessments of safety and traffic patterns, Leahy said. The senator said Napolitano told him that process would take about a year. Homeland Security plans to evaluate how to secure the region after the station is closed, along with how best to reroute traffic to the nearest station some 15 miles away.

“The decision to close it is an appropriate conclusion to this process,” Leahy said in a statement. He noted the closure will save taxpayer money and preserve the Rainville farm.

The order to close the station came as “a result of extensive consultations with the local community and our partners in Congress, and based on independent analyses by security and constructions experts,” Homeland Security spokesman Clark Stevens said in a statement Thursday night to The Burlington Free Press. He added the port of entry is the oldest one operated by Customs and Border Protection, and without upgrades it “fails to meet the national security standards of today, leaving closure as the only appropriate course of action.”

The port of entry was built in 1934, a dozen years before the Rainvilles bought their farm. It is one of 15 ports of entry between Quebec and Vermont.

The Morses Line crossing had little traffic. An estimated 17,000 cars a year used the Morses Line crossing. As Rainville puts it, that works out to an average of about two vehicles per hour.

Cowlesy
06-04-2010, 01:38 PM
Woohoo! Excellent news!!!!

Score one for Americans!

LittleLightShining
06-04-2010, 01:45 PM
Woohoo! Excellent news!!!!

Score one for Americans!

It's definitely good for the Rainvilles. I do suspect this was all kabuki to remind Vermonters that Patrick Leahy cares about farmers. I doubt Leahy would have initiated that hearing in Franklin (that neither he nor Napolitano showed up for) had he not known how the play would turn out. And all of us who went to support the Rainvilles and speak up with them against this abuse were the bit part actors Leahy needed.

Oh, well. Like I said, the Rainvilles prevail. And Brian's testimony (in the other thread) was citizenship at its best.

phill4paul
06-04-2010, 04:45 PM
It is wonderful to see a post containing good news for a change.

MsDoodahs
06-04-2010, 04:49 PM
Yes, good news!

libertybrewcity
06-04-2010, 06:07 PM
The Morses Line crossing had little traffic. An estimated 17,000 cars a year used the Morses Line crossing. As Rainville puts it, that works out to an average of about two vehicles per hour.

wow, and they wanted to spend 5 million dollars? pathetic government. glad they reconsidered.

phill4paul
06-04-2010, 06:14 PM
wow, and they wanted to spend 5 million dollars? pathetic government. glad they reconsidered.

LOL, I'm not even going to try a cost analysis of this. I will keep my current good mood regarding the outcome.