Huge auction of land marked power firm’s penultimate concession
A quarter-century ago, American Electric Power Co. threw in its next-to-the-last towel, admitting it had lost the battle to build a large coal-fired power plant in Henderson County two decades earlier.
It was a long-running story that might have had a different ending if the company had been a little more forthcoming about its plans here. I’ve written about this story before, because it spanned decades, but I’m including a recap to make sure y’all have the proper context.
There had been rumors for years that a large power plant was planned somewhere in Henderson or Union counties. But it wasn’t until Sept. 11, 1969, that The Gleaner reported AEP was planning to exercise options on 3,089 acres, presumably because it might build a power plant here
The Sept. 26 Gleaner said the company had bought 400 acres near Geneva – its first land acquisition in Henderson County – and was considering buying another 600. Geneva quickly became the focus as the site of the supposed power plant.
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“The fact that purchases are being made is a clear indication that, eventually, options will be exercised on the entire 3,089 acres,” said Bill Deep, AEP’s local attorney. The company eventually would own a little more than 7,000 acres in Henderson County.
But over the years whenever AEP officials were asked for details about local intentions the standard reply was no firm plans existed for a power plant here. That tactic came back to bite the company after it made an offer to build a new airport for the community as 1970 was turning into 1971. The new airport would have been in the Zion vicinity and would have cost $1.5 million.
Henderson Fiscal Court and the City-County Air Board quickly approved the airport swap. The Henderson City Commission, however, tabled the issue until it could get some answers about the environmental impact of what everyone knew was going to be a power plant.
AEP would not provide those answers because – once again – it said it had no firm plans to build a power plant here. Opposition built to a crescendo in Henderson and Evansville in March 1971.
The controversy faded for a couple of years but came roaring back Feb. 1, 1973, when AEP’s real estate subsidiary – Franklin Real Estate Co. – bought 400 acres near Zion. That stirred things up all over again.
The AEP public affairs office was once again asked for comment. “We have never said we planned to build a plant near Henderson,” said William Corbett, assistant vice president of PR, “we have just acquired property.”
By mid-June 1973 The Gleaner was reporting AEP planned to build the world’s largest power plant here. It also quoted a Federal Aviation Administration official as saying the AEP project would make the airport unusable – and vice versa.
The Gleaner of April 13, 1974, reported AEP was planning to build its $800 million plant in Indiana’s Sullivan County. In the same story, AEP’s board chairman cited public opposition as the reason it would not use the Geneva site.
The financing fell through, however, and it wasn’t until The Gleaner of Nov. 23, 1976, that AEP announced it would build its new power plant near Rockport, Indiana. The first 1,300-megawatt unit went online in December 1984, and the second several years later. The first unit is scheduled to be retired before the end of 2028.
Meanwhile, AEP continued to maintain the Geneva area was a viable site for a power plant. But the property remained undeveloped. It wasn’t until The Gleaner of Nov. 1, 1997, that Henderson County residents learned AEP planned to auction 1,656 acres of its local holdings totaling about 7,005 acres.
That story, reported by Chuck Stinnett, said the property for sale had been bought by AEP so it could build a railroad spur to connect with a since abandoned rail line.
Stinnett described the property as “a corridor beginning at Kentucky 136-West, then extending southeast past U.S. 60-West and ending at the former Illinois Central-Gulf Railroad near Wilson Station Road. Most is farmland, though the property does include nine homes.”
The property was auctioned in 33 parcels on Dec. 10 at a hotel near the Evansville airport. It brought in nearly $3.7 million.
About five years earlier AEP had sold Drura Scott the 604 acres it had bought near Zion on which to relocate the city-county airport. But other than that 604 acres, the auction of 1,656 acres on Dec. 10, 1997, was the first major divestiture of AEP’s landholdings in Henderson County.
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The bulk of the company’s property here remained in AEP’s hands until 2010. In October of that year a subsidiary of Peabody Energy Corp. – Cypress Creek Land Co. – bid about $17 million to buy all 44 tracts of the remaining 4,745 acres AEP owned in Henderson County.
As of 1997, AEP was only mildly interested in that property; it was not trying to sell it, but it was allowing local economic development efforts to proceed there. “We have not actively marketed it, but any serious inquiries we’re willing to discuss,” said Roger Wheeler, AEP’s director of land management.
“I have presented information on that property twice in the past year, which is an awful lot of activity for property of that size,” said Tom Arneson, executive director of the Henderson Economic Development Council.
100 YEARS AGO
The idea of using what is now Audubon Mill Park as a tourist campground had been floating around for a few years but tourists didn’t begin camping there until the end of 1922, according to The Gleaner of Nov. 2.
“Six cars of tourists were parked on the Audubon lot Wednesday night, proof of the need of a tourist camp for Henderson. Every week tourists camp here, either above the ferry or at the fairgrounds.”
The property was unsightly at the time. The Owensboro Messenger-Inquirer of Aug. 25, 1922, reported the city of Henderson was in a legal battle with junk dealer Abe Cohen, trying to force him off the riverfront at what is now Audubon Mill Park.
“Cohen for a number of years has had piles of all kinds of old iron and metal junk scattered over the site….” The city was moving toward creating a tourist campground there, but that didn’t occur until the following year.
Minutes of the Henderson City Commission meeting of April 30, 1923, shows the city unanimously resolved to “hereby designate and set aside said Audubon Mill site as a tourist camping ground and that said site shall hereafter be known as Audubon Park.”
That use of the park as a campground ended in the early 1930s.
75 YEARS AGO
Husband E. Kimmel “broke a long silence” and confirmed he had stopped a bullet during the Dec. 7, 1941, Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, according to The Gleaner of Oct. 30, 1947.
The retired commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, who at that time managed a Knoxville, Tennessee, engineering firm, said he had not considered the incident “worth mentioning” because the physical damage was not serious.
“I was standing near the window of my headquarters at Pearl Harbor when a stray Japanese .50 caliber machine gun bullet came through and hit me,” he told reporters. “Fortunately, the missile was spent and did no damage except to leave a small black and blue spot on my chest.”
Later reports noted he murmured to his communications officer, “It would have been merciful had it killed me.”
Also in 1947, The Gleaner of Nov. 5 reported that a public vote to authorize a bond sale of $2.1 million to improve the deficient city power plant was defeated at the polls 2,226 to 1,529.
The power plant issue had seen the community badly divided, with the mayor and major industries advocating its need and the other two city commission members dead set against it.
The 1948 election saw a reversal on the bond issue 1,874 to 1,424. That led to construction of the Station One power plant on Water Street, which began operations in 1951 after a cost of about $3 million. It replaced an outmoded power plant built in 1896.
50 YEARS AGO
The Baskett Volunteer Fire Department had been operating 10 years as of 1972 – but the winds of change were blowing. The Gleaner of Nov. 5 noted five of the 30 volunteer firefighters were women.
Those five were Frances Morton, Carolyn Tomblin, Jan Alexander, Nancy Norman and Pauline Norman.
They learned how to drive the fire trucks and operate hoses, oxygen equipment, and portable pumps. They were also taught safety rules.
“According to Marcus Sanders, Kentucky Department of Education, this is the first time in the state that women have become volunteer fire department members and have taken training in firefighting,” the story says.
The Baskett volunteer fire department began operations on Valentine’s Day 1962. A total of 39 Baskett residents pledged to monetarily support the fledgling department.
Readers of The Gleaner can reach Frank Boyett at YesNews42@yahoo.com or on Twitter at @BoyettFrank.
This article originally appeared on Henderson Gleaner: Huge auction of land marked power firm’s penultimate concession
