Blandford Moves to Set Conditions on Eversource's $64 Million Substation Expansion

BLANDFORD -- April 29, 2026, Blandford energy committee sets conditions for Eversource's $64 million substation expansion with a May 10 deadline looming. The committee, which formally intervened in the state Energy Facilities Siting Board process, invited the police chief and highway superintendent to identify what protections the town should demand on the record before the intervention window closes. The police chief said Eversource pays the town's detail rate of $80 per officer and cruiser per hour but warned the project "is not your normal traffic detail," given plans to move large transformers by crane. The highway superintendent called for catch-basin filtration, concrete transformer containment, and photographic road-condition documentation before and after heavy deliveries, citing a culvert under North Blandford Road that drains toward Cross Pond. The committee's lead speaker reported that the Department of Energy Resources acknowledged at a recent Lenox event that it "underestimated what rural communities were going to have to go through," but said state approval of the project is widely seen as a near-certainty, with the town having already spent close to $100,000 of a $200,000 legal appropriation.