It was the strangest sensation Lynda Barry ever felt: a near-constant vibration within her body. ...Barry was standing in a house in Fond du Lac County, near a wind farm. The vibration she felt was created by wind-power turbines, one just 1,100 feet away. These were part of the Blue Sky Green Fields wind project, 88 wind towers owned and operated by We Energies. The owners of the house complained of ringing in their ears anytime the wind turbines and their 100-foot blades were spinning.

Either way, the sound of wind turbines is making more ears perk up as a bill moves forward in the Legislature that would empower the Public Service Commission to create statewide rules governing wind power and pre-empt local government control over their placement. The rules would govern the distance between turbines and homes along with their noise and the flicker effects of shadows from their turbine blades.

To the champions of wind power, the resistance is benighted and intolerable. "In a state that prides itself on its progressive renewable standards," says Eric Callisto, chairperson of Wisconsin's Public Service Commission, "getting our wind resources stymied at the local level is not acceptable." But to wind power critics, those restrictive local ordinances are enlightened and appropriate. Cartoonist Lynda Barry, a fixture in the Reader for years and now a Wisconsin resident, says she used to support wind power but believes its partisans have shut their eyes and ears to its victims, to people suffering physical ailments caused by living near the turbines.

About eight months ago, Melissa Smedema got wind of We Energy's plans to set up a 90-turbine wind farm in the Columbia County towns of Scott and Randolph. She said she went door to door in Wisconsin communities where wind farms already exist, and heard stories of noise, vibrations, headaches, dizziness and sleepless nights.

As wind-power generation has ramped up, so have concerns about the health effects of living near wind farms. Although major environmental groups such as Greenpeace and the National Resources Defense Council have voiced strong support for wind power, opposition from a few grassroots anti-wind power groups potentially could hinder development in populated areas.

It is still too early for ITC Holdings Corp. to pinpoint the routes for its Green Power Express, but Dane County representatives already are skeptical of a path through the region. "People try to sell lots of ideas with green trimmings," said Dane County Supervisor Kyle Richmond. "But we'll still want to know who's going to pay for it, if they're guaranteed profit and if there's a reasonable analysis of the need for this project."

Not long after the wind turbines began to spin in March near Gerry Meyer's home, his son Robert, 13, and wife, Cheryl, complained of headaches. They have trouble sleeping, and Cheryl Meyer, 55, sometimes feels a fluttering in her chest. Gerry is sometimes nauseated and hears crackling. The culprit, they say, is the whooshing sound from the five industrial wind turbines near the 6-acre spread where they have lived for 37 years.

Although the 400-foot turbines can sometimes delay air medical rescues, emergency personnel are trained to cope artfully with such situations, said Claire Rayford, spokesperson for Flight for Life ...The pilot decides what is safe and makes a decision based on many different factors at the time of the incident, Rayford said.

It's a plan, not everyone is thrilled about. On a stretch of land, just southwest of Fond du Lac, Curt Kindschuh lives near a windmill farm. It's an area where Flight for Life and Theda Star say landing could be extremely tough, and that's why pilots are being told to avoid it, even if there's an emergency.

The modern windmills may create clean energy but they are a clear and present danger to air ambulances. Milwaukee-based Flight for Life has notified first responders in Fond du Lac County that air ambulances will not land near the windmill clusters here. "They are up in the air," said Flight for Life's Claire Rayford. "We have to be aware of them. Depending on how high they are, they may not be lit."

The state Legislature will try again to establish statewide wind farm standards, but the one-size-fits-all approach faces the same opposition. ..."It's a scary prospect to put (turbines) in here among all the homes," said Mike Luethe, chairman of the town of Ridgeville, which last week joined the town of Wilton in passing an ordinance establishing half-mile setbacks for wind farms. "Local governments should still have a say in the matter."

Fitchburg 's McKee Farms Park could have an added attraction this summer -- a small and what some say will be quiet -- wind turbine. Known as an "urban turbine, " it looks similar to a 30-foot flagpole topped with a 12-foot rotating helix. "This is not one of those big propeller things, " said Fitchburg administrator Tony Roach. Madison Gas & Electric proposed the turbine for the Fitchburg park because it wants a visible spot to demonstrate and monitor the technology that some day customers could use to power their homes or businesses, said John Drury, business development manager for MGE.

Jim Congdon said two friends living in the town of Byron are experiencing significant sound problems and constant blade flicker since the $250 million Forward Wind Energy Center began operating. "It's extremely irritating," he said. "What is the company going to do with somebody like that?" Laura Miner, asset manager associate for Chicago-based Invenergy Wind LLC, said it's currently fielding all complaints . "What we did when we built the project was to have a 1,000-foot setback and try to prevent some of those things from happening," she said. "Now we're doing drive-by tests and going up to the houses to try to gauge what's going on."