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When the third consecutive three-hour session reached its time limit, people remained on the list of those wanting to comment or testify, and the hearing was continued until 7 p.m. Monday, May 12, in the auditorium at Pontiac Township High School.
The hearing is being held by the Livingston County Zoning Board of Appeals, which will make a recommendation to the Livingston County Board on whether to grant a special use permit to allow construction and operation of the 155-turbine farm by PPM Energy, a Portland, Ore.- based wind developer which as of today is part of Spain-based Iberdrola Renewables. Iberdrola has 23 projects in operation in the United States, with a 36-turbine one in Bureau County ready to go online soon.
The Cayuga Ridge turbines would be built across 15,000 acres in Odell, Union and Saunemin townships.
Scott Peterson spoke about his concerns regarding aviation, as did Roger Finnell, from the consulting firm for the city for the Pontiac Municipal Airport. He asked that the locations and heights of all towers represent no hazard to aviation. "All it takes is one wind turbine to impact the instrument approach to the airport," which has seen an increase in commercial users, he said.
Peterson, who owns Pontiac Flying Service and does aerial applications for farmers, said "we will not risk our lives to go in there and spray our crops" where groupings of towers represent a hazard to aircraft. In answering a board member's question, Peterson said he's been offered twice the money he usually charges to go inside one grouping of towers if they are built, and said no.
Kim Schertz, of Hudson, whose husband does aerial application in Livingston County, asked that the permit be denied, saying adequate lighting of the towers has not been sought, bypassing federal regulations, and they represent "enormous risk ... for all members of the aviation community." She said she thought the towers could prevent future growth at Pontiac's airport.
Four Blackstone-area residents testified to the Board of Appeals. Joe and Melinda Cusack said they enjoy their quality of life in the country, living in a 105-year-old house and having horses. Melinda Cusack noted that one standard in whether to grant a special use permit is to consider the "comfort or general welfare" of people affected by a project. She said she thinks "our comfort level is being threatened."
"I just feel our rights are being invaded," she said. The county "stands to lose good people" who live here or moved here because of its agricultural and rural aspects, she said.
Laura and Jim Buscher also listed areas of concern in separate testimony to the board. She said she knows 15 families who moved to the county "for what we have," and that she has seen no business plan for the wind farm making money.
"View has value," she said of esthetic questions regarding wind farms.
"Waiting and watching should not hurt our bargaining position," she said about delaying a decision on wind farms until it is seen how they fare elsewhere.
Jim Buscher called PPM's decommissioning plan for the towers and their concrete bases "a nice little piece of fiction, and said "dozens, perhaps hundreds" of rural homeowners will be affected by the turbines. He said he was concerned the agricultural community of residents living on the farmland "will wither and die" and asked that a decision on the project be delayed, noting that a year from now information will be available on how wind farms in two other counties are doing.
A Bloomington attorney retained by the Union, Odell and Saunemin township road commissioners testified that negotiations are continuing on a road maintenance agreement, and that he and the commissioners have found PPM "professional and negotiating in good faith.
Frank Deninger, of Pontiac, spoke both as an individual and as a member of the Livingston County Board. He said the turbines "will radically alter the countryside." He described himself as "a County Board member who finds himself in a quandary. He owns no property in the wind-farm area, but Deninger told the Board of Appeals that as a County Board member "for me the choice may be a miserable one either way" when it comes time to vote on the special-use permit.
Both the first and the final comments on the wind farm at Wednesday's session of the hearing favored it.
Four superintendents of school districts within the 15,000-acre area of the wind farm supported the project.
Ty Wolf of the Odell Grade School District, Leo Johnson of Pontiac Township High School District 90, Julie Schmidt of the Saunemin Grade School District and Dale Adams of Dwight's grade and high school districts made their comments as superintendents, and not on behalf of the boards of education in the districts. None of the boards has taken a position on the wind farm.
Wolf, who spoke for the four, said the farm would provide "$2.4 million new dollars per year into our school budgets" while adding no new students to consume some of that new money.
The final witness Wednesday, Rodger Christensen of Gardner, said he owns 80 acres "right in the heart of this project.
"I think that the Livingston County Board has done a terrific job with this," he said. "I think that the county should move forward with this" and approve it.
Asked if any of the turbines would be on his land, Christensen answered, "I wanted one, but I didn't get it."
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