The Boone County Commissioners have asked the county health department to research the alleged health issues of wind turbines. Two developers want to build wind farms in Boone County. These plans have created both enthusiasm and opposition. "We are seeking some direction," Rachel Whittington, Boone County Area Plan Commission interim executive director, told the commissioners Monday. "We want to be careful what direction we want to take here."

Rich Porter of rural Paxton said he believes that Ford County, like other counties, has relied too much on information supplied by wind energy representatives. Porter is convinced that wind farms could have a negative impact on the county land values, taxes and zoning issues. "Wind farms are not what they look like on the surface; they have many twists and turns," he warned during the public comment period at the board's Monday meeting.

A meeting to gauge public opposition to wind farms in Boone County is scheduled for 7 p.m. Feb. 19 at the Boone County Farm Bureau Community Building at the 4-H Fairgrounds, 1300 East County Road 100 South, Lebanon.

A lawsuit between two Lebanon neighbors is being watched carefully by people in the wind turbine industry. The outcome could effect future commercial and residential development of wind turbines in Boone County and central Indiana.

Within the next few years, dozens of wind turbines could be erected in Randolph County ... Indianapolis attorney Christopher (Kit) Earle, of Bose McKinney & Evans, advised farmers attending the meeting that land lease payments were just one issue they should address in a contract with energy companies. Other issues include access roads to the wind turbine for construction, operation and maintenance; soil compaction; escalation of lease payments to take inflation into account during the 20- to 40-year life span of the wind farm; underground electrical cables and their impact on cultivation and drainage tiles; fixed payments versus royalties or percentage of revenues from a wind farm; negotiating as a group because of safety-in-numbers advantages; and decommissioning turbines when they are no longer useful.