ROCKFORD - Winnebago County Board members are set to put an end to what turned into several months of intense lobbying by unions, environmental groups and others when they vote Thursday night on an ordinance to allow wind farms in the county.

Most of the details - such has how far back a wind turbine should be from a property line - have been worked out and agreed upon by most everyone involved.

But County Board members will still have to decide how big of an oversight role they want to give themselves in the process, especially as the proposed ordinance relates to environmental protections.

Two weeks ago, board members delayed a vote on the ordinance after several amendments that eliminated some oversight regulations were introduced on the floor by Zoning Committee Chairman John F. Sweeney.

The vote to delay came before a packed County Board room where union members filled the gallery holding signs that said "Wind Farms Create Jobs" and "Construction Unemployment is 35%." When the board voted to delay the measure, the groan was audible.

"I personally disagree with some of the teeth that were put into the ordinance, and I thought that what we have should be a little more permissive," Sweeney said Monday. "I like what we have now, and I don't think (passing a wind farm ordinance is) in jeopardy at all."

The amendments Sweeney introduced were a compilation of items put together by the county's planning and zoning department based on, officials said, the discussion at the zoning committee meetings.

Key among the changes was one that eliminated the ability of the Winnebago County Soil and Water Conservation District to halt a project because of environmental concerns and another that essentially relaxed restrictions on where wind turbines could be placed based on migratory bird flight patterns.

"Our position all along has not been on the wind farms, but to have the strongest safeguards for the environment and the wildlife," said Jerry Paulson, executive director of the Natural Land Institute.

Paulson's group was among a coalition of organizations that brought environmental issues to the forefront of the wind farm discussion and pushed the issue of migratory bird flight patterns. They had language inserted in the ordinance that turbines could not be built in any "known major bird and bat migration pathways/corridors."

"I've seen a map where the whole state of Illinois is a migratory bird path," Sweeney said. "So to say you can't put a wind turbine there doesn't make sense."

The proposed ordinance now says that turbines can't be placed in those patterns only if they "pose a substantial risk" to the wildlife.

"It's workable and it's better than nothing," Paulson said about the post-amendment ordinance. "I think that the (county) staff and the others have been very open in this process."

Meanwhile, trade union officials promise their people will be at Thursday's County Board meeting to promote a yes vote on the ordinance.

"The simplest way to put it is it's about jobs," said Darrin Golden, principal officer for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 364, one of the trade unions - along with the ironworkers and carpenters - that has lobbied for a wind farm ordinance to become reality.

"The construction trades are almost in the same shape as they were in the ‘80s," Golden said. "We're very much in support of the wind farm ordinance passing."