A couple who owns a mountaintop home in Rutland County was awarded $1 million by a Rutland Superior Court jury following a dispute over the construction of a communications tower on their property.
Felix Kniazev and Olga Julinska abandoned their home in Wells after Vermont Electric Power Corp., or VELCO, constructed a communications tower on their property. The couple’s home, which they purchased in 2007 for $390,000, is situated on 10.5 acres of land.
The jury award is based on the fair market value of the home in 2011, Julinska said in an interview Tuesday afternoon. She said she was pleased with the verdict after a nearly four-year dispute with VELCO.
“All we wanted was to be left alone on our mountain,” Julinska said. “Juries speak for the people. I can see that this is really the best hope we have to decide these issues.”
In an interview Monday afternoon, VELCO Vice President Kerrick Johnson said the jury’s decision was a “legal error” that might set an unwelcome precedent.
“We would have much preferred to arrive at an collaborative agreement,” Johnson said. “It’s upsetting; we are reviewing the options.”
VELCO is uncertain whether it will appeal the decision to the Vermont Supreme Court.
“We are going to review every aspect of this to see what is the most logical course of action given the facts of the case, how it was decided, the precedent it may or may not set and how we want to move forward,” Johnson said.
Editor’s note: This article was updated at 8:03 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 17.
In 2011, VELCO filed for condemnation, a procedure authorizing private entities to force the sale of a landowner’s private property, in order to expand the easement around the tower, Julinska said.
“We did not believe that they had the property rights to do this project,” Julinska said. “This was an eminent domain taking.”
In July 2012, the Public Service Board, the state’s quasi-judicial utility regulator, ordered VELCO to pay the landowners $25,750. This came after the couple filed for a protective order in October 2011.
“It was an insult, that’s what it felt like,” Julinska said. “That whole process was extremely painful.”
She said there is a wide disconnect between the views of the general public and the board.
“What makes this case so important and powerful is that clearly the jury completely disagreed with Public Service Board and VELCO with what the impacts of this project really are,” Julinska said.
VELCO was using the property to create an internal mobile communication network that would be used to coordinate work on the state’s electrical grid between utilities.
“We need a robust and reliable a system of communication, to protect these line workers who are operating in very dangerous conditions so they can perform the works necessary to get the lights back on,” Johnson said. “If this was part of the price to pay to ensure line worker safety, I guess in this instance it will still be worth it.”
There was an existing 72-foot cell tower on the landowners’ property that was to be replaced with an 80-foot tower as part of network upgrades to comply with federal standards. Easements around the project were also to be expanded.
Johnson said the site was the best for the project. Otherwise, VELCO would have had to put cell towers on two separate and undeveloped mountaintops to construct the radio facilities. He added that would not have produced the same quality of radio service and would have cost more than the jury’s award.
He said VELCO offered to pay the landowners an amount between $25,000 and $1 million before the Public Service Board heard the case.
Johnson said the cost of the legal dispute will be passed on to ratepayers, though the cost increase will not be significant.
“We made the best decision that we could, but all of Vermont and New England ratepayers … will have to pay for this decision,” he said. “It will be costly, but it will likely be a small cost on a per customer basis.”
