Manitoba Hydro will be compensating the RM of La Broquerie for two towers they accidentally set up on a municipal road allowance.

The towers belong to the Manitoba to Minnesota Transmission Line, a project that was completed just last month. Reeve Lewis Weiss says the two towers in question were constructed on a piece of undeveloped land just off of Highway 12 near Zhoda that was set aside for a municipal mile road.

For the inconvenience, Council will be asking Manitoba Hydro to pay them $20,210 dollars per tower and an additional $1,500 for each affected acre of land for a total of 12 acres. The easement agreement also gives the company the responsibility to assume any legal fees and associated costs that may arise in the future.

“If it would have been valuable municipality-owned farmland we would have asked for a lot more,” comments Weiss, “but because this was just unused land that was of lower grade, we asked for a lower amount.”

Weiss says he is not upset at Manitoba Hydro’s mistake as Council had no immediate plans to build a road in the area. “Besides,” he notes, “any amount of extra money is good.”