SHERBURNE – They say only fools rush in, but preemptive strikes by the Village of Sherburne could eventually play a significant role in thwarting an almost invisible, yet very real enemy: New York Regional Interconnect Inc.

Within days of receiving NYRI’s March 31 power line proposal, Mayor Bill Acee and the village board joined the City of Utica in retaining legal counsel, without any real knowledge of the project, just a sense of its magnitude.

“We immediately decided to coordinate our efforts on the offensive, instead of the defensive,” said Village Trustee Stephen Dunshee. “It was unanimous – the discussion was all for it.” Dunshee said the decision to immediately jump into the fight wasn’t given an afterthought, considering the implications NYRI’s power line would have for Sherburne. “It would be detrimental to our village,” he said. “They want to run it right down the middle of Sherburne, physically taking out homes and businesses.”

Since March, a number of citizen’s groups and government alliances have formed up and down the line in a grassroots effort to raise awareness and much-needed funding. Locally, groups such as STOP NYRI, The Regional Congress of citizen’s groups, and Communities Against Regional Interconnect (an eight-county alliance of officials and citizens) have worked together and separately to create opposition on several different fronts.