$88M NYSEG FLAIR powerline draws concern from Enfield, Newfield Boards; neighbors
by Robert Lynch; December 4, 2025
It is aging infrastructure older than most of us. We’ve taken it for granted; long accepted it for what it is.
But if the power company has its way, that wooden nonagenarian on stilts will soon die a quiet, unheralded death and vanish from the landscape to usher in its 21st Century replacement; a bolder, taller-standing offspring set to strut its copper-brown steel self across the rural landscape of Enfield’s southwestern corner and Newfield’s northern edge. Some call it progress. Others hate it. They’d prefer that the old, wooden granddaddy live on forever.
“It’s a terrible idea,” Enfield Town Planning Board member Rich Teeter opined at the Planning Board’s November fifth meeting. “They’ll be ruttin’ all over on the land. I don’t like it. I like stuff the same, and they’re changing it, and I guess I don’t have a choice.”
The “they” to whom Teeter referred is New York State Electric and Gas Corporation, NYSEG. And the “it” is NYSEG’s “FLAIR” project, the utility’s fast-tracked $88 Million rebuild of a 21-mile transmission line (#982) that links two large power substations, one in Montour Falls, and the other on Ithaca’s South Hill.
Pending grant of a “Certificate of Environmental Compatibility and Public Need,” an application now before the New York State Public Service Commission (PSC), the FLAIR endeavor would dismantle a long stretch of 91-year old, tandem wooden poles that drape their transmission conductors side-by-side within a 100-foot wide right-of-way. The current wires hang beneath an “H-frame” wooden configuration. NYSEG would replace the 1930-era H-frames with far-taller, brown, steel monopoles, supports that would attach wires to their sides.
Each gray wooden pole rises only 30 to 60 feet above ground. The steel monopoles, although fewer in number, would anchor in concrete and elevate from 74 to 122 feet. A NYSEG manager, speaking to Enfield officials, struck the average height at 88 feet.
“The existing line is over 91 years old and the asset condition is poor,” Emma Timerman, Project Manager for the FLAIR initiative, defended the replacement during a presentation to the Enfield Town Board November 12, a session that came one week after Enfield planners had given the company’s plans their initial look.
“These structures are made of wood and have been there for almost a century,” Timerman explained. “So you’ve got several generations of woodpeckers that have made their homes here.”
But a closer look readily confirms that our friendly, foreign-based utility has more on its mind than just deterring the unlikely prospect that poles will rot and drop their wires. Eighty-eight Million doesn’t get spent without a better purpose. The newly-rebuilt line would handle far more energy, NYSEG admits. The FLAIR cables would carry more than 2.5 times as much current of do the lines they would replace.
FLAIR would “remove bottlenecks to the local transmission system,” Timerman explained. “We’re trying to meet New York State energy goals, and we’ve got to put more power through these lines,” the manager advised the Enfield Town Board.
“FLAIR,” is an acronym probably conceived by some well-compensated, PR-savvy NYSEG marketing consultant. It stands for the “Finger Lakes Area Infrastructure Reliability” Project. PSC documents indicate that the utility first filed for the agency’s approval in December of last year. NYSEG’s timetable calls for a final PSC decision by the second quarter of 2026. Construction would start in early-2027, with the new lines completed and energized two years thereafter.
To their (supposed) credit, NYSEG and the PSC have purportedly fulfilled all legal obligations to notify municipal stakeholders, to post public notices, and to invite citizen comment. Nevertheless, the line replacement ingeniously for almost a year found a way to evade municipal and media scrutiny.
No news stories on FLAIR have yet found their way to the local press. An advisory letter that NYSEG supposedly provided to Enfield’s Town Supervisor last spring never got shared with other Town Board members or with constituents. The PSC held its obligatory Public Hearing October 8 in Montour Falls. The agency’s Administrative Law Judge kept the session open for half an hour that day, encouraging someone to speak. The hearing transcript reveals that no one offered testimony.
Only in November, slightly less than three months before the PSC’s January 29 deadline for written comments, did FLAIR generate serious public attention. And when it did, it certainly did.
More than a dozen residents turned out for the Newfield Town Board’s monthly meeting November 20. Neighbors living near the NYSEG line and its right-of-way criticized FLAIR and ate up more than an hour of a session which Newfield customarily keeps succinct and to the point, but which this time dragged to until nearly Ten O’clock. Critics took frequent aim at the monopoles’ proposed height and how they might obstruct view of residents’ surroundings.
“I have one of the double wooden, electrical thingies in my backyard,” Cynthia Henderson of Millard Hill Road told the Newfield Board, Henderson referring to the poles standing there now, “which means it might end up being replaced by that gigantic monstrosity that they’re talking about putting up,” she surmised. “And it’s going to affect, possibly affect my property value and potentially cause some health issues. So, I’m quite against it, and I’m very concerned.”
“My whole life, I’ve dreamed of having my house on a hill with a scenic view,” 24-year old Kirsten Hamburg, a new homeowner on Douglas Road, informed the Town Board. “These aged poles were a concession for me, but I was fine with it because it blends in with the tree line. I cannot handle a ginormous pole in my backyard,” Hamburg complained.
“And I’m very concerned, because… I got no notice of this project,” Hamburg insisted. “I got no letter, I got no email. I got no phone call…. I did not get any notice of this project until I received a paper on my mother’s door last week that this is going on.”
That paper on the door was likely put there by Ann Brown or her son, Shaun. Mother and son spent days canvassing the neighborhoods of northern Newfield; knocking on doors, telling residents about the project, and leaving flyers if no one was at home. Credit the Browns not only for waking up those living near them, but also for first informing Enfield Board members of the incipient controversy.
“As you may or may not be aware, NYSEG is currently seeking Article VII approval for replacing their 115 kV transmission line (line 982) that runs from Montour Falls to south of Ithaca,” Shaun Brown emailed the Enfield Town Board on the first Sunday of November.
Concerning the nearly 100 foot monopole that NYSEG proposes, Brown critiqued. “A structure this tall is overkill for a 115kV transmission line, indicating that in years to come NYSEG will seek to increase the voltage and right-of-way.”
Three days after receiving Brown’s email, and at this Town Councilperson, Robert Lynch’s, request, the Enfield Planning Board took up the FLAIR project, yet issued no formal recommendation. One week later, the Enfield Town Board gave FLAIR its own look.
By a pair of 4-0 votes, the Enfield Town Board agreed to enter the ongoing PSC FLAIR deliberations as a “Party of Interest” and also to designate this Councilperson, Lynch, as its ”municipal representative and liaison” in the matter. On behalf of Enfield, electronic paperwork was filed November 17.
“I don’t think it does any harm,” this Councilperson advised the Town Board before it cast its final November vote. “I think it’s something we should do just to protect the Town of Enfield’s interests.”
“This Town Board believes NYSEG in its PSC filings has failed to justify the need for this transmission line replacement,” Enfield’s adopted resolution to join negotiations stated, in part, adding “this Board believes that the higher metal structures FLAIR proposes would impose glaring visual impediments inconsistent with the text of… this Town’s Comprehensive Plan.”
The Enfield resolution also raised potential health hazards associated with electromagnetic energy, risks stemming from the increased current-carrying capacity of the new lines. Even though NYSEG submissions to the PSC purportedly affirm the company’s compliance with regulatory standards, the Enfield and Newfield discussions raised doubts, including about the safety of the line that already exists.
“I have in the past traveled that driveway under those 130 kilovolt lines,” a driveway leading to a constituent’s private residence, this Councilperson advised the Enfield Board in November. “And after I have done that and been at that residence for a while, I feel ill.”
“Being that proximate to it may be like standing in a microwave,” this writer related his sensation.
Joining the PSC review process does not obligate Enfield to file legal pleadings, retain counsel, or spend money, even though it could should it choose to do so. Instead, involvement will ensure that if NYSEG or anyone else pleads for or against the FLAIR project, Enfield officials will receive timely notice.
So far, the Newfield Town Board has not followed the same path. It has not formally joined the PSC proceeding. Yet Newfield Supervisor Michael Allinger signaled near the end of the November 20 meeting that Newfield will likely draft a formal comment, adopt it as a resolution, and forward it to the PSC by the agency’s late-January deadline.
Newfield has also announced plans for a second discussion of the FLAIR project at its next meeting, Thursday, December 11. NYSEG representatives will attend. Further Town Board action could follow.
That said, one’s actually stopping the FLAIR powerline replacement, although not impossible, could prove for any homeowner—or group of homeowners—a daunting challenge.
“I think it’s very unlikely that they’re going to stop this project,” Thomas Smith, Attorney for the Town of Newfield, advised during the November 20 meeting. “But I think that it’s also very unlikely that there’s not going to be a compensation element for landowners whose value is diminished as a result of the project.”
“So we lose,” one unidentified woman responded from the gallery in frustration.
Nevertheless, the prospect of landowner compensation could provide with it a small amount of solace. And for Supervisor Allinger, urging monetary rewards could become part of his town’s strategy.
“If we can draft a resolution of support to, for either compensation or movement of these structures so that they’re not obstructing any current easements, I’d like to make that one of three action items that we could possibly do,” Allinger told Board members. The Supervisor would also like more information through Tompkins County Government to help identify exact pole placement.
“So, on the one hand, I’m hearing from constituents all the time about why are we getting so many blackouts?” Allinger acknowledged. “And it’s because of the infrastructure. So the infrastructure’s clearly needed. Nobody’s going to argue that. But what can we do as a town to support the people that are going to be affected by these poles going up in their yard, even though they have the easements?”
Somebody, most likely a NYSEG representative and most likely at that Montour Falls public hearing (for which the official record is bare) described for Newfield’s Ann Brown the FLAIR right-of-way as just “Billy Goat Country.” For those who tossed that comment around the room November 20, it didn’t sit well.
“And I took offense to that, because Newfield’s not Billy Goat Country,” Ann Brown protested. “We are prospering; we have seen real estate come in, new houses being built. On my road alone, there are two new businesses.”
“It’s important that it’s not Billy Goat Country,” Cynthia Henderson concurred. “Really, it is beautiful out here, and I love my neighbors. “
Sunny View Drive’s Carolyn Clark added, “But we’re not a Billy Goat trail, with people coming from all other parts of the world to a very beautiful place. We want to keep it that way.”
Whether or not Billy goats wander that 21-mile, 100-foot wide right-of-way west from the Coddington Substation on Ithaca’s East King Road to Montour Falls remains an open question. But that a lot of angry people live along that corridor too remains far more certain. In Enfield, it’s only a residence or two, plus Rich Teeter’s Teets and Son scrap yard that intrude close to the lines. But in Newfield, many more live within sight of them. People have grown accustomed to what’s there now. They fear what lies ahead.
“So, where are they gonna put this monstrous power pole? James Martin, owner of land he hopes to build upon at 306 Millard Hill Road, asked. “What is it going to do to our, our view of, you know, city lights, our coming out and looking at stars?” Martin continued to question, “And you’re considering people coming to camp with us, you know, building a house. Where we want to put our home is, could be greatly impacted, and maybe not even possible should that large power pole exist.”
And, of course, there’s always a second shoe that could drop. What if once NYSEG built the higher, more hefty line, it added a second trio of wires or another string of those ugly metal monopoles? What if the visual blight and the electromagnetic danger were compounded? That question came up in Enfield.
“Could it put additional poles to either side of that that’s being proposed now to increase the carrying capacity in that right-of-way?” this Councilperson asked NYSEG’s Timerman at the November 12 meeting.
“Potentially?” Timerman responded hesitantly, apparently caught off guard. “This is my project. I can’t say in the future. Maybe?”
And that perceived evasiveness; that “never-mind, we’re NYSEG” attitude bothers more than just one of us.
“I love my property. I love where I live. I pinch myself every day that this is like a vacation home with my views,” Margaret Hamburg of Douglas Road told the Newfield meeting. Of the monopoles, she evaluated, “It’s gonna, it’s very devastating for us, 100%.”
And of how this has all come down, Hamburg’s opinion: “I think it’s been very sneaky on NYSEG. It’s been, it’s been backdoor.”
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