After hearing testimony Wednesday from Brian Rainville, whose family owns the affected land in Franklin, Vt., Rep. James L. Oberstar, D-Minn., the powerful chairman of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, and minority leader Rep. John Mica, R-Fla., sent a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, requesting a halt to the $15.7 million plan to modernize the Morses Line Land Port of Entry in Vermont.
“With a population of six, a road 22 feet wide, and a traffic rate of 2.5 cars per hour, Morses Line is not a critical port facility,” said Rainville, who noted the part-time border crossing is open eight hours a day and there are additional ports of entry just 11 miles west and another 10 miles east.
He said his family learned DHS was considering a new crossing more than a year ago when a “right of entry arrived by overnight mail.” He said in April he was told his family “had 60 days to voluntarily sell land historically associated with the Rainville farm” or face eminent domain action.
“I have no praise for DHS planners, who moved ahead with plans for a new Morses Line facility with the full knowledge that it had nothing to do with national security. DHS had money to spend, and assumed my family would literally leave the field,” Rainville told the committee.
After his testimony before Congress and the Oberstar-Mica letter, it seemed likely Rainville, who said he “was born and raised in an America that Norman Rockwell would recognize,” had a good chance of teaching his high school class — who watched the hearing over the Internet — that you can fight city hall. ' Chris Dupin
