$PHOTOCREDIT_ON$Arianna MacNeill, DCO$PHOTOCREDIT_OFF$

DIGGING IN - Enbridge St. Lawrence Gas employees along with Franklin County legislators and Malone village and town officials put on hard hats and symbolically dug in front of the Malone-Dufort Airport Thursday in order to indicate the end of the planning phase and beginning of the construction phase of the 48-mile natural gas pipeline that will extend from the town of Norfolk to the village of Chateaugay. The company’s assistant general manager, Jim Ward, noted the planning phase had taken 10 yearf. “I’m amazed at the support the project has had,” he said. “Today the celebration is not just a St. Lawrence Gas celebration, it’s a community celebration. It’s the first day of construction.” The $41 million dollar project is beginning in Norfolk, and crews have been busy doing work in the towns of Brasher, Lawrence and Stockholm in recent weeks. Mr. Ward said in August that the company hoped to reach Malone by the end of the year and finish in Chateaugay next year.

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