BENSON - When Ed Allen looks to the north from his Secor property, all he sees in the distance are grain towers.

But if a 79-turbine wind farm is constructed northeast of Benson in the coming months, Allen could see changes.

"I think it will look impressive to look and see a wind tower," Allen said Monday, following a question-and-answer session between the public, Woodford County officials and Navitas Energy, the developers of the 160-megawatt wind farm.

The county's conservation, planning and zoning committee held the informational meeting at Benson Junior High School.

It was the final informational meeting for the public before the wind farm is voted on by the Zoning Board of Appeals on Sept. 27.

A slew of questions ranging from construction issues to whether the turbines - which will stand nearly 400 feet high, or considerably taller than Peoria's 29-story Twin Towers building - will damage wildlife or interrupt cable TV services.

Navitas officials said mitigation plans are in place if cable TV services were affected. Also, they said it was highly unlikely that birds, hawks or other animals would be harmed by the turbines' rotating blades.

Clarence "Pete" Hughes, executive director of the Fair Assessment Information Resource Committee, questioned how the turbines will be assessed.

He said he was concerned about inequities in wind farm assessments from county to county.

Proposed state legislation, if approved by the General Assembly, could uniformly assess wind farms based on production instead of real property.

For now, Woodford County plans to assess the Benson farm at 20 percent of market value, smaller than the 25 percent at which Lee County assesses the Mendota Hills wind farm.

"Once the original value is set, you are stuck with it," Hughes said. "If state law brings standardization . . . you save on (possible) litigation."

Navitas officials also answered questions about the potential damage that heavy truck loads could cause as the wind farm is constructed. The company will meet with several township governments in the coming weeks to further discuss how they will pay for damage caused to the rural roads.

John Sharp can be reached at 686-3234 or jsharp@pjstar.com.