The American dream ... derailed

By Kathleen Yasas

Correspondent

SHERBURNE – Unlike many residents of Chenango County, Cindy Carter and Kit Enscoe were not born and raised here. Cindy grew up in communities in Massachusetts and New York, and Kit is originally from Lancaster, Pa., and southern New Jersey.

However, it was the Chenango Valley that the couple chose as home 18 years ago because of its rural beauty and because of what living in a small community in central New York could offer them as a family.

The American Dream, right?

Well, yes and no.

If New York Regional Interconnect (www.evesun.com/topics/news/NYRI/">NYRI) has its way, the Enscoes will not be staying. You see, their home is between Sherburne and Earlville along the Susquehanna and Western railroad line, just one hundred feet from the tracks.

“Our home is an old post and beam farm house built around 1790, and was renovated to a Victorian style in the 1900s,” Cindy says. “We have 13 acres, a barn, a carriage house, and a chicken coop.” They also have children: Adrian, 17, a junior at Sherburne-Earlville High School, and Zoe, 11, a sixth-grader at S-E Middle School. Add to the mix three cats, one dog and a chinchilla, and what you have is one of the many families in upstate New York whose lives will be forever changed if NYRI’s proposed power line project goes through.

“Our old farm house and property are precious to us. We’ve worked hard on renovation projects inside our home and on our property. We feel living here has enriched our lives and it has been a wonderful place to raise our family. We love our community and don’t want to leave. But if the power line comes through, we will definitely leave as we don’t feel it would be safe to live that close to a high voltage line.”

Carter is an M.D., and works as a psychiatrist at Upstate Medical University in Syracuse. Kit is a software engineer and works from home for a Massachusetts-based company. They discovered the Chenango Valley because Cindy worked here in the 1980s as part of the National Health Service Corps program for psychiatrical under-served areas.

“We came here, loved it, and decided to stay,” Cindy said.

Should their home fall victim to construction of the power lines, it will not only be the Enscoes who are lost to the community. The farm itself is historic property, being some 200-plus years old.