By BOB TUROSZ
NORTH READING — The Selectmen will hold an information session on Monday, June 15 from 8 to 9 p.m. in the Distance Learning Lab at North Reading High School on Park Street during its meeting that evening.
Representatives from Kinder Morgan will attend the meeting to provide an update on the project as well as answer questions expressed by the Selectmen in their March 10 letter. Federal and state legislators have also been invited to attend.
The Selectmen invite property owners who may be impacted by the proposed pipeline as well as all interested parties from North Reading to attend. For more information, visit the town’s website, www.northreadingma.gov and select “Tennessee Gas Pipeline (Updated).”
The Distance Learning Lab is located in the new high school, on top of the hill. Park in the upper parking lot at the rear of the building and proceed down the long hallway known as “Main Street” past the Performing Arts Center and the Media Center, to the atrium in the school’s academic building. The Distance Learning Lab is on the opposite side of the atrium.
Recently, Kinder Morgan announced it is scaling back the scope of its controversial pipeline plan by dropping a proposed 15 mile lateral line off the main pipeline from Bolton to Worcester, because of a lack of customers for the natural gas.
This decision does not affect North Reading, however, which lies in the path of the so–called “Lynnfield lateral.”
Back in March, the Selectmen sent a lengthy letter to Kinder Morgan requesting detailed information on numerous issues, including contracts associated with pipeline for New England gas suppliers as well as contracts to provide gas to foreign distributors; the need for additional gas pipeline capacity in New England; Kinder Morgan’s safety record; a report on payments to host communities over and above the valuation of the pipeline itself, and other questions.
According to town records, 43 parcels of land in North Reading would be affected by the pipeline route, from Cold Spring Road near the Wilmington town line to Scotland Heights and Haverhill Steet near the Reading line. Eleven of those parcels are owned by the town itself.
