ALBANY – Chenango County residents will have a chance to express their views on New York Regional Interconnect without traveling to Utica or Oneonta after all.

According to a ruling earlier this week, the New York Public Service Commission has revised its original plan to hold public statement hearings and information forums in only three locations. The new hearing schedule includes a total of nine communities along the proposed 190-mile electric transmission line’s route, including Norwich and Hamilton.

“Our efforts to accommodate the various requests and balance them against competing consideration have resulted in a total of 13 public statement hearings and information forums,” stated Administrative Law Judges Michelle L. Phillips and Jeffrey E. Stockholm in the procedural ruling issued Monday. The two judges have been assigned to preside over the review process for NYRI’s Article VII application.

Locations were selected within seven counties that could be impacted by the project and within proximity of two others. Each of the planned sessions will take place within 20 miles of the project’s proposed primary and previously identified alternate routes.