Protesters Block Turbine Delivery, Get Arrested: Police

NEW MILFORD, CT —Four protesters briefly halted a delivery of 700,000 pounds of machinery and its state police escort from New Milford to Cricket Valley Energy Center in Dover Plains, N.Y. by chaining themselves to a tractor in the middle of the road.

State police requested that the protesters unchain themselves from the tractor, which was uparked across the caravan's route along Route 7 and along sections of Route 55 from Kimberly Clark in New Milford to Dover Plains. When the protesters refused, police contacted the Gaylordsville Fire Department who cut the chains, according to a police report.

The protesters believed that the natural gas powered plant "will be emitting toxins such as arsenic, acid gases, chromium, NOx, mercury, nickel, and toxic CO2 spanning a 50 km or 31 mile radius," according to the website Popular Resistance which chronicled the civil disobedience escapade.

Police arrested Benjamin Franklin Schwartz, 41, of Wassaic, N.Y., Christopher L. Iversen, 52, of Kingston, N.Y., Philip M. Erner, 38, of Wasaic, N.Y. and David Epstein, 38, of Albany just befor midnight. The four men were held on $500 bond apiece and are scheduled to appear in court on Jan. 23.