Towns Spending $254,200 To Fight JCPL Power Lines

HOLMDEL, NJ — $254,200. That's how much the towns of Holmdel, Middletown, Hazlet and Aberdeen predict they will spend this year fighting the proposed Monmouth County Reliability power line project.

The Asbury Park Press published the total sum after the Middletown Township Committee passed a resolution Monday night to pay $25,000 in taxpayer funds to the law firm Bevan, Mosca & Giuditta, PC. That's the law firm retained by the four towns to fight JCP&L's power line proposal.

Administrative Law judge Gail Cookson is expected to make a recommendation sometime this week or next on whether or not she recommends to the Board of Public Utilities (BPU) that the power lines be built. The BPU will then make their final decision in January.

Last year, the four towns decided they would band together and pool their combined funds to fight the power line proposal. JCP&L, under their parent company First Energy, seeks to build a 10-mile long, high-voltage power line from Aberdeen to Red Bank, along the North Jersey Coast rail tracks. Towns such as Holmdel, Middletown, Aberdeen and Hazlet are passionately against it. Opponents say the power lines will cut through back yards, destroy property values, and may expose residents to potentially cancerous electromagnetic radiation, although that has not been proven.

However, the town of Freehold and Fair Haven's mayor support the project, saying it will improve electricity service in the area.