Hoagland Residents Rally Against Proposed I&M Transmission Route
NO SOUTH ROUTE! That was the battle cry of a large group of Hoagland residents on Wednesday night, September 23rd at an I&M Open House held at the Memorial Coliseum in Fort Wayne from 5:00-7:00 p.m. The group anticipated that they would be able to ask questions of I&M representatives in an open forum setting. They wanted the entire group of attendees to hear the questions and I&M’s replies. Instead, I&M created a very long, slowly moving, line of some 1,000 people that formed all the way out to the parking lot.
There was still a long line at 7:00 p.m. Attendees had to sign in, then visit 12 open “stations”. There were poster-sized, printouts of information that was already available on their Lulu-Sorenson website. No open forum was offered, and no real questions, such as “on what specific parameters will you base your decision?” and “what factors will lead you to choose the final route?” were answered.
The proposed Lulu-Sorenson project would add about 75 miles of new 765-kV transmission line between the Sorenson Substation near the General Motors plant in Huntington County to a location near the Indiana-Michigan state line. An online map shows the proposed routes the new towers could take. They have marked some 70 “study segments” along the proposed route. No final decisions have been made. Their website encourages residents living along the segments to give their feedback to I&M officials. They encouraged everyone to send them any information on their affected property (such as woods, ponds, livestock, structures, etc.) to: Indiana and Michigan 833-441-2260 IM_Outreach@aep.com or Delia Makhetha 877-605-5554 Imoutreach@aeptransmission.com by October 9, 2026. The final route decision will be announced before the end of the year.
Hoagland residents as well as the many attendees living along the “northern” route, were upset that they were only given 9 days to prepare on this complicated topic for the Open House. They were only allowed a two-hour general information Open House, much of it spent standing in the very long line.
NO SOUTH ROUTE! has many serious questions that they feel must be addressed. Will I&M ever respond to them? Why won’t they allow a question-and-answer session in an open forum? Towers placed on farms, property, near homes and businesses will impact those residents for many decades to come. NO SOUTH ROUTE! feels the least I&M can do is listen to their concerns.
— Rick Boys
