Company using property, hopes MEA won't impose eminent domain

July 31, 2007

By Russell Stigall

Frontiersman

MAT-SU - Matanuska Electric Association member-owners voted to place their future electric generation site close to existing railroad tracks, transmission lines and wide open spaces. Unfortunately for the electric cooperative, someone already lives there.

Matanuska Electric Association held an election in May to ask its member owners to choose between five potential sites to build 200 megawatts of new electric generation in the Mat-Su Valley. A majority of member-owners picked the 850-acre Glenn Highway Gravel Pits South, located at Mile 37. The site is bordered by the Palmer Hay Flats Game Reserve and the Matanuska River.

As many as 14 original sites were narrowed down to five with the help of engineering consultant CH2M Hill. At an MEA board of directors meeting in June, board members voted to allow MEA General Manager Wayne Carmony to begin negotiations for and purchase of enough of the gravel pit site to house and operate a 100-megawatt coal-fired power plant and a 100-megawatt natural gas-fired plant.

While making these plans, neither MEA's board nor its administration informed the site's owner, Wilder Construction's Central Paving.

&#8220We found out about MEA's interest in our gravel pit from their glossy site selection mailer,” said Trevor Edmondson, general manager of Central Paving. &#8220It came as a surprise to us.”

The mailer was part of MEA's May site selection vote.

Edmondson said Central Paving sent Matanuska Electric a letter saying the company is not interested in selling the property.

&#8220Their attorney wrote back and said they would file immanent domain,” Edmondson said.

Other than that, Central Paving has heard little from MEA, he said. &#8220The most contact has come from advertisements and newspaper articles.”

Edmondson said Central Paving is not close to being finished with the site.

&#8220We have many more years of mining left,” he said. &#8220More than a decade.”

And when the mining is done, Central Paving has a reclamation and residential development plan. &#8220We've done a lot of planning for this site,” Edmondson said. &#8220And it didn't include a coal-fired power plant or a prison.”

The site was also one of three finalists for the location of the Mat-Su Medium Security Prison.

Central Paving has been at the south Glenn Highway site since the 1970s. Wilder Construction bought Central Paving in 1987. Gravel mined from Glenn Highway site is used in Central Paving's projects in the Valley and in Anchorage.

&#8220We produce crushed aggregates and asphalt and concrete aggregates,” Edmondson said.

Central Paving owns about 350 acres of the 850 total acres MEA tagged as the Glenn Highway Gravel Pit South. Much of the remaining acreage is owned by Quality Asphalt Paving.

Edmondson said the site is valuable to Central Paving for more than just its aggregate resource. Central Paving made a &#8220significant investment” to lay a rail line through the area.

&#8220We put that track in,” Edmondson said. &#8220So location is a big issue.”

If MEA exercises imminent domain to acquire Central Paving's parcel it could hurt his company, Edmondson said.

&#8220It is going to affect our entire business, on Wilder Construction and all of our customers. And most of our employees are at work in our pit out there,” he said. Central Paving employs an average of 40 employees at the Glenn Highway site.

MEA has said that it is in negotiations with Central Paving and other owners of the Glenn site; however, Edmondson said the interaction he has had with MEA he would not describe as &#8220negotiations.”

Central Paving is an MEA member-owner, he said, adding that , &#8220We are one of MEA's largest customers.”

Mat-Su Borough Assembly Member Michelle Church mentioned Central Paving's concerns at a recent Mat-Su Borough Assembly Meeting.

&#8220I assumed Matanuska Electric had done negotiations before selecting a site,” Church said.

Central Paving's MEA member-owner money will be used against him in this fight, she said. &#8220I definitely feel for this guy.”

Borough Manager John Duffy said Matanuska Electric has threatened in the past to condemn Borough and private lands to build a transmission line through the Borough's landfill to the Mat-Su Regional Hospital.

&#8220They have the statutory power,” Duffy said.

Contact Russell Stigall at 352-2267 or russell.stigall@frontiersman.com.