VERGENNES — Vermont Gas Systems now plans to complete installing gas lines throughout the city of Vergennes by the end of 2017,  a company official told the Vergennes City Council at its Aug. 30 meeting.
Vermont Gas Director of Sales and Marketing Thomas Murray told the council that the company expects to begin work in earnest in Vergennes next spring.
“Our goal is to hit the ground running next year,” Murray said.
Murray joked the council “might have heard” about the cost over-runs and delays of the Addison Natural Gas Project pipeline, which was originally projected to extend into Vergennes this year.
He said the last hitch, an eminent domain dispute over a Hinesburg park, should be resolved sometime between December and April, allowing the company to proceed in Vergennes and elsewhere. The company will drill a line under that park and leave it completely undisturbed, Murray said.
Murray was in Vergennes to discuss easements for work in city rights-of-way along roads, and possibly across one corner of the city green, a possibility City Manager Mel Hawley said he would work with the company to avoid.
Hawley said only a handful — “and when I say a handful, I mean five properties” — of Vergennes homes and businesses would not have the chance to hook up to a natural gas line when all are installed.
Despite the comprehensive plan, Murray said he was confident Vermont Gas and its subcontractors could lay all the needed pipe in 2017.
“Our goal is to get it all done, and we certainly think we can get it all done,” Murray said.