CONCORD — Speakers told several hundred people attending a rally opposing Northern Pass on Sunday that the fight against the transmission power line project isn’t over and that they should write to legislators and a state committee considering the project.

“There is nothing that we will not do to fight this project, legally,” Sugar Hill resident Dolly McPhaul told the crowd from the steps of the State House. “I want to say that the opposition cannot be silenced and we cannot be bought.”

McPhaul told the story of a Stewartstown dairy farmer who turned down an offer of millions to sell his land for the project, which will include 132 miles of overhead power lines that opponents believe will hurt some of the state’s scenic views.

“This man was my hero and he has exemplified what is so much a part of the North Country people,” she said. “We treasure our land. We treasure our heritage. We treasure our views and we will not allow them to be destroyed, especially for money.”

That farmer, Roderick McAllaster, in a phone interview Sunday, said he was offered “in the vicinity of” $4 million for land to provide a route for Northern Pass to go through his dairy farm of 1,400-plus acres.

He said people he understood to be representing interests of Northern Pass made the offer several years ago before project officials decided to bury power lines near his property instead.

“If you bury these power lines (for the entire project), you don’t have to sacrifice the state of New Hampshire,” McAllaster said.
 

Click below to read the full story by Michael Cousineau in the Union Leader