There were plenty of back slaps, lots of applause for a job well done, and who knows how many hugs as hundreds of happy folks celebrated their surprising victory at the Inn of the Ozarks following their 21-month battle with Southwest Electric Power Company.
Many wearing stickers on their clothing that read 'We Did It" had come to the inn Sunday afternoon to mark their hard-fought and expensive victory. It was a party that few in the room expected to be attending just two weeks ago.
And yet here they were enjoying a five-piece local band (it even had a tuba) and reliving the ordeals required to overcome the desires of major electrical providers with all their financial and political clout.
Strikes me electric utility giants are accustomed to getting what they want without much pushback. May have something to do with their deep pockets and contributions to the politicos who appoint the commissions that oversee them. Mere supposition on my part.
But this time, because preserving the natural beauty of the Ozarks and private property and many intangibles were involved (such as the unified, indomitable human spirit of hundreds of volunteers), things turned out much differently.
Many from across Benton and Carroll Counties brought assorted tasty snacks and hors d'oeuvres to this festival, and a cash bar was doing a brisk business. A cacophony of laughter and conversations kept the popular hotel's primary convention room and lobby humming with an air of excitement.
After struggling legally for nearly two years and being forced in the process to raise over $150,000 from private donations so these ordinary citizens could legally fight the Southwest Power Pool, American Electric Power and SWEPCO's announced plan to construct an enormous transmission line from Benton County to near the Kings River at Berryville, the utility folks finally pulled the plug on their plans and walked away from their project on Dec. 30.
Too bad their ill-conceived plan using unrealistic, irrelevant projections developed years earlier wasn't abandoned early on based on facts and common sense. That would have been the right thing to do. Instead, the utilities with endlessly deep pockets forced lots of citizens potentially affected by its idea for carving a wide swath through the Ozarks near Eureka Springs to tap personal bank accounts just to prove the overblown plan was unjustified and unnecessary.
In plainer words, for the citizens to prove the same conclusion SWEPCO reached last month after 21 months of hearings, disputes and expensive legal wrangling: Oops! Their 345 kV line wasn't needed after all.
While I haven't researched it, I strongly suspect this victory, led by a populist volunteer group called Save The Ozarks that was formed in 2013 by three citizens of Eureka Springs in response to the proposal submitted to construct for this 345kV power line, must be one of only very few times that concerned citizens anywhere united in common purpose to derail a power company's grand expansion plans.
In the inn's packed grand ballroom, the crowd watched a screen featuring those from the community who on July 15, 2013, had passionately argued against the proposed transmission line before a Public Service Commission hearing in this same room.
The irony wasn't lost on the speakers, who noted the hundreds of heartfelt pleas at the hearing had been filed away afterwards with a thank you for testifying.
STO director Pat Costner, vice president Doug Stowe, and board members Michael Shah and Patricia Helwig each were recognized, along with more than 20 volunteers who had come to celebrate. The group also praised power line transmission specialist Dr. Hyde Merrill and attorney Mick Harrison for the key roles each played in the outcome.
Eureka Springs' personable new mayor Butch Berry called it a great day for Eureka and a victory for common sense as he issued a framed proclamation in honor of STO's victory, which was presented to Costner.
Stowe took the podium with the best line of the day when he said the behemoth power line pushed by SWEPCO not only was unnecessary from the get-go but was comparable to "watering a lovely pot of petunias with a fire hose and claiming it was for our own good."
Costner, a soft-spoken lady with formidable resolve, left the crowd with a message, saying, "all the i's have yet to be dotted and t's crossed" in this battle that I (and so many Arkansans) believe never should have gotten to this point based on proven and genuine need for a Godzilla power line to the middle of nowhere Arkansas.
I interpreted her remark to mean I won't be surprised if STO and those who sacrificed so much of their energy, worry, time and resources to prove exactly what SWEPCO and its parents acknowledged in the end are rightfully going to ask to be made financially whole for what they needlessly endured.
So stay tuned, my friends. These good and tenacious people clearly will not rest until the scales of fairness and "doing the right thing" have been balanced. Can't say as I blame them, can you?
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Mike Masterson's column appears regularly in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Email him at mikemasterson10@hotmail.com.
Editorial on 01/13/2015