By MIKE CORN

mcorn@dailynews.net

It will be a case of deja vu, in the form of yet another public hearing, for the construction of a 345,000-volt power line extending from Spearville to Hays.

A second public hearing has been set for 7 p.m. July 1 in the La Crosse City Auditorium. The hearing was requested after ITC Great Plains, which plans to construct the line, learned it had failed to notify 17 landowners.

State law requires notification of anyone at least 660 feet from the line, but ITC extended that out to anyone at least 1,000 feet away.

The July 1 hearing will follow the same general pattern of the first, conducted in mid-March.

While the meeting will be open to the public, it is designed to give those 17 landowners the chance to have a say in the proposal to build the transmission line.

No new information will be presented at the July 1 hearing, although it will follow the same general format.

ITC's request to conduct a second hearing came about in the wake of a Monday formal hearing before the KCC. A decision on the proposal to build the line is expected to be made by July 13, absent a request to extend the schedule because of the late-notified landowners.

What has been extended, however, is the time period for sending comments to the KCC. Now, any written comments must be made by July 2, with ITC making formal responses by July 8.

"It is going to be a tight schedule," said Abbie Hodgson, director of communications for KCC.

The 17 apparently slipped through the cracks because ITC was juggling four possible routes, according to Kimberly Svaty, spokeswoman for ITC.

"We wanted to make sure we were contacting everyone within 1,000 feet," she said of why they asked for a new hearing.

Of the 17 that weren't notified, a couple have been following along with the proceedings so the issue isn't a surprise. At least two landowners who should have been notified attended the mid-March hearing in La Crosse.

At that hearing, landowners testified that adjustments need to be made in terms of where the line goes.

Foremost was a suggestion that the line be rerouted about 4 miles west of Nekoma to avoid passing through a proposed wind farm.

In a response, however, ITC said doing so would add $6.3 million to the overall cost of the project.

At today's costs, ITC anticipates it would cost about $90 million to build the line from Spearville to Hays.

Eventually, the line is expected to move north, meeting up with another line in Axtell, Neb.