MCCLUSKY - For weeks, the talk in McClusky has been whether the only grocery store will reopen, such a loss to a town with a small and aging population.

Talk took a different tack Wednesday, when developers of the biggest transmission line to cross North Dakota in decades came to McClusky to get public input on the project.

Minnkota Power Cooperative plans to spend about $300 million on a new line from its coal-fired power plants at Center to Grand Forks. It will borrow low-interest money from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Rural Utility Service, which is running the project through a lengthy Environmental Assessment process.

Land all directions from McClusky is being studied as part of a transmission corridor.

About 30 landowners came to town for coffee, cookies and the chance to hear more about the project and were disappointed that a wide corridor - 10 miles in places - and not a specific route is all that's been identified so far.

"I thought they could be more specific and tell us what the route is," said Leland Vossler, who farms south of Mercer. "They've been drilling holes on the edge of our land."

Vossler said he could "live with" the 345-kv transmission line, providing it edges the land and doesn't cross it "kitty-corner."

Ervin Ness, another landowner, said he thinks landowners will cooperate with the cooperative depending on "if they treat us fair and where it all goes."

Merle Lehmann, rural Mercer, was pragmatic about the project.

"It's got to go somewhere," he said.

Jerry Jesz, rural McClusky, said he's wondering what local landowners will be offered for land the cooperative needs to cross.

"I'm kinda wondering what they're gonna come up with," he said.

John Graves, Minnkota's environmental manager, said the co-op will attempt to be fair with everyone along a route that will range from 248 to 284 miles, depending on the specific route inside the corridor. It hopes to start construction in 2011 and be on line by 2013.

The trickiest part of the route will be where it crosses the Missouri River south of Washburn. Minnkota already has a line crossing the Missouri River there, not far from where Basin Electric Power Cooperative's line crosses the river. The new line will have to span over both at some point.

The Nature Conservancy and the Cross Ranch State Park border the Missouri River and are inside the study corridor and Graves said there are other cultural features and wetlands to consider. The corridor is wide so that once it gets the anticipated environmental approval next year, the precise route can be rejiggered depending on avoidances and other issues.

Graves said the public will have other opportunities to comment on the project. The actual route, or siting, has to be approved by the state Public Service Commission.

Along with the transmission line, Minnkota also is spending about $400 million to upgrade the pollution controls at its Milton R. Young station, where the new transmission line will feed. After the new line is built, the existing line will be turned over to a Duluth, Minn.-based cooperative that will use it for wind energy it will develop as Minnkota gradually takes over the entire electrical load from Milton R. Young.

The new line will require 1,400 poles and most of it will be hung with deflector devices to minimize the number of birds killed by striking the lines.

(Reach reporter Lauren Donovan at 701-748-5511 or lauren@westriv.com.)