Mid-Missouri family speaks out amid eminent domain battle

After living on their farm in Mexico for decades, a mid-Missouri family said they have been forced to fight in a years-long battle, after an electrical cooperative invoked eminent domain.

Andy Ekern said his family moved to Mexico, Missouri in the 1960s. His mother was a teacher and his dad was a doctor. Ekern said they both had a dream to own land of their own.

“They came to Mexico, Missouri with nothing,” Ekern said.

Over the years the Ekern’s worked hard to turn their vision into a reality, curating hundreds of acres of farmland and building a quiet place for their family to call home.

“This is good rolling farm ground right here.This is all pasture,” Ekern said.

However, a portion of this paradise will soon be used for something else.

About two years ago, the Ekern’s said their lives changed overnight when they received a letter from Central Electric Power Cooperative. The letter asked for a 14-acre easement to build a transmission power line across their property, connecting two nearby sub-stations.

“It was a complete shock,” Ekern said.

If the Ekern’s didn’t agree, Central Electric threatened to use eminent domain.

“They could come and take the easement and do what they wanted to anyways,” Ekern said.

That’s exactly what happened. Ekern said his mother was devastated.

“For the longest time, she cried every time you talked about it,” Ekern said.

Ekern said landowners’ hands are essentially tied when it comes to fighting eminent domain.

“When you’re the black dot in the middle of the powerline, you’ve got no recourse,” Ekern said.

Despite this, he vowed to fight in whatever way he could. Ekern enlisted help from The Law Firm of Haden and Colbert to guide him through the legal process.

His lawyer, Brent Haden, said three court-appointed commissioners determined how much the Ekern’s would be paid. However, Haden said there could be a catch.

According to Haden, cooperatives, such as Central Electric, pay 100% of the fair market value as determined by the courts. Meanwhile, investor-owned electrical utilities and merchant transmission lines pay 150% when they go over agricultural ground.

“Central Electric only has to pay 100%, whereas Grain Belt, had they built the line themselves, would have had to pay 150%,” Haden said. “It’s a real source of frustration to think the system could be gamed.”

In a statement, Central Electric said, “Grain Belt is required to pay for any upgrades to the transmission system necessary to maintain reliability of the grid, due to their interconnection. If those upgrades weren’t funded by Grain Belt, then our member owners would have to foot the bill.”

Central Electric also said the transmission line going across Ekern’s property will be used to support the Cooperative bulk electric transmission system in the region.

A spokesperson with the group said, “It will help to ensure reliable electric service to our member owners. In the Mexico area, that member is Consolidated Electric Cooperative.”

Following the commissioner’s decision, Central Electric requested a jury trial. In a statement, Central Electric said it hopes it can come to a reasonable settlement before going to trial.

Amid the ongoing legal battle, Ekern said work on the property has already begun. He said crews were there clearing the land with bulldozers and chainsaws.

He said it has impacted some of the family’s crops.

“Where the line is coming through it’s mostly crop, so it’s got corn and soybeans in it,” Ekern said. “You have to farm around it. You have to plant around it. And, you have to look at it, which is probably the biggest part.”

Additionally, Haden said companies are not required to help fix land once construction is complete. He said the law is pretty much silent when it comes to land management and how land is treated in eminent domain cases.

“A lot of people get upset with the way the utilities tear the ground up underneath the lines and there’s no obligation under the law to go back and repair that,” Haden said. “Some of them do a pretty good job on that front. Some of them do a terrible job and they tear up the ground and won’t fix it when they leave.”

While some may think the Ekern’s story does not apply to them, Haden warned the expansion of data centers could change that.

“Data centers are going to use a tremendous amount of power,” Haden said.

Haden claimed more power lines will be needed to fuel data centers and rural landowners could pay the price, with many possibly fighting eminent domain cases of their own.

“The projections we have here for many rural landowners, it’s almost unavoidable that you’re going to have this problem because of the raw number of lines they’re going to have to build,” Haden said. “They’re going to run out of room.”

Ekern said while it may be too late for his family, he’s determined to share their experience in the hopes that landowners have more protections in future eminent domain cases.

“Right now the landowner is completely powerless,” Ekern said. “We were told if you don’t like it, you have to change it.”

Ekern said he has shared his story with legislators at the State Capitol. Haden encouraged residents to speak with their local and state representatives.

He said legislation that provides more protections for landowners must be passed.

“The good news is, in a democracy we control our government,” Haden said. “And so, ultimately it’s up to us to get involved.”