If you know of a scenic, historic or cultural resource within 10 miles of the proposed 192-mile Northern Pass transmission line corridor from Pittsburg to Deerfield, the attorney who represents the public on siting the project wants to hear from you.

Senior Assistant Attorney General Peter C.L. Roth, as counsel for the public, represents the public’s interest in the state Site Evaluation Committee proceedings. The evaluation committee will ultimately decide if the hydro-electric project can be built.

Community members are invited to take part in structured workshops over the next few weeks in five communities to help experts identify local resources: Ashland, Concord, Littleton, Lancaster and Colebrook, Roth said. (See dates and locations below, and this map to see when and where your community will meet.)

People are asked to identify places and areas of beauty, use, history, and tradition in their communities that are within 10 miles of the proposed Northern Pass transmission corridor that may be affected by the project.

Click on the map to see which meeting will discuss your community.

“We will attempt to accommodate people who cannot make ‘their’ meeting and show up at another but it won’t be the same experience,” Roth said.

Roth has engaged experts to provide evidence on the Northern Pass project’s potential impacts on the state’s scenic, historic and cultural resources.

The Site Evaluation Committee must consider these impacts in assessing proposed energy projects, according to Roth.

The workshops will allow community members to meet with Roth and the two experts to help them identify particular places, areas, and features in communities that are within the “area of potential visual impact” of the project, Roth said.

The workshops will include a short presentation by the experts. Then, people will break into small groups representing the communities present and use maps, forms and discussions to identify, and describe resources, places or areas that are important to them and their communities, according to a news release about the workshops.

“The workshops are opportunities to work together,” Roth said. They are not Site Evaluation Committee meetings so no testimony will be taken, Roth said.

“Part of this is an exercise to learn what the resources are,” Roth said. The experts will take the suggestions into consideration when compiling evidence, he said.

The point of the workshops is to provide information to him and the experts, Roth said. “We want people to come with a fairly parochial point of view to tell me and the experts what it is they are concerned about in their town.”

People don’t have to be directly impacted by Northern Pass or have any involvement to participate, he said.

The following meetings will take place at these times and places, but Roth also said people can contact him if they can’t make them.

ASHLAND
Tuesday, July 26 at 6 p.m.
Ashland Elementary School Auditorium (access on Highland Street),
16 Education Dr., Ashland

CONCORD
The Heights Community Center (formerly the Dame School),
Thursday, July 28 at 6 p.m.
14 Canterbury Rd., Concord

LITTLETON
Monday, Aug. 1 at 6 p.m.
Littleton Opera House,
2 Union St., Littleton

COLEBROOK
Tuesday, Aug. 2 at 6 p.m.
Colebrook Elementary School Cafeteria,
27 Dumont St., Colebrook

LANCASTER
Wednesday, Aug. 3 at 6 p.m.
Town of Lancaster Auditorium,
25 Main St., Lancaster