I love it when the feds lose
US backs off plan to take Vt. farm for border port
MONTPELIER, Vt. – Score one for David. Goliath decided it just wasn’t worth the fight.
The federal government has decided to close a tiny U.S.-Canada border station rather than push ahead with a controversial plan to expand it by seizing a dairy farmer’s land, officials announced Thursday.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection had sought to renovate the sleepy Morses Line port of entry in Franklin – which gets about 2 1/2 vehicles an hour – by seizing a 2.2-acre parcel from the Rainville family dairy farm, which adjoins the station.
Customs officials initially wanted to take 10 acres from the dairy farm, then cut it to 4.9 acres, warning the family in a letter that if it didn’t agree to sell for $39,500, the land would be seized through eminent domain. Last month, officials reduced that to 2.2 acres.
The plan drew opposition from the Rainvilles, Sen. Patrick Leahy and many along the quiet border.
In a public hearing last month, about 150 people packed into Franklin Town Hall, some carrying signs that read “Eminent Domain Equals Federal Land Grab” and “Save the Rainville Family Farm.” Of the 18 people who spoke, none favored the plan. Some called it wasteful, an abuse of eminent domain or worse.
On Thursday, Leahy announced that Homeland Security Chief Janet Napolitano had agreed to close the station instead, calling it the only appropriate course of action.</em>
Go Rainvilles!
