Eminent domain lands at the Canadian border

By Tom Fetters Dolan Media Newswires MILWAUKEE, WI -- Trying to pick the winners and losers in the eminent domain drama playing out on a Vermont dairy farm along the border with Canada is making my head spin. Last year, when the feds included the 76-year-old Morses Line border station among the stimulus-paid upgrades, the government said the improvements would require it to acquire 10 acres from the farm family. The apparent winners were border station workers and people who use the crossing. The likely losers were members of the Rainville family, who were going to lose a chunk of their farm. But the Rainvilles fought the feds, who gradually scaled back the upgrades and cut the amount of land needed for the project to 4.9 acres, then last month to 2.2 acres. My list of apparent winners and losers stayed the same, but the outcome was much closer to a draw. Still, the Rainvilles were determined to keep their farm intact. They kept battling and picked up support from other residents -- who jammed a crucial public meeting and criticized the government's efforts to seize the farmland as an abuse of power -- and from U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy, who urged Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to drop the project. Last week, Leahy said Napolitano had agreed to close the border station instead of prolonging the dispute. That seemed to be a big win for the Rainvilles -- one of the family members said the decision restored his faith in government -- but a big loss for everyone else in the drama. And sure enough, this week a bunch of residents are complaining about the plans to shut the Morses Line station, pointing out that the next closest border crossing is 30 to 45 minutes away, and claiming that cross-border commerce and emergency services will be disrupted. Now, with all of the hard feelings over the planned closure, I'm struggling to see any winners at all. Tom Fetters is a copy editor at The Daily Reporter. He likes the idea of crossing into Canada at will (for fishing, of course, not for gambling and cheaper health care drugs). Entire contents copyrighted © 2010 by Dolan Media Company. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is expressly forbidden. Published: Thu, Jul 1, 2010

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