Caseyville police arrested businessman and windmill-builder Larry Wetzel on Monday afternoon after a judge signed a warrant for his failing to appear in court on charges he forged a building permit. A jury found Wetzel guilty of four counts of forgery in September. Prosecutors said he presented a faked building permit to police and a court clerk in an effort to build a wind turbine and power building in Caseyville.

This time, the county was prepared, but the developer was not ready to advance the Minonk Wind Farm project for a vote by the Woodford County Board. At the request of David Radin, project manager for developer Gamesa Energy, the County Board on Tuesday tabled a vote on a road agreement as well as a special-use permit for the proposed 100-turbine project.

A recommendation that a proposed 333-turbine wind farm should be given a special use permit is on its way to the McLean County Board. The McLean County Zoning Board of Appeals voted unanimously to recommend Horizon Wind Energy LLC's plan for Black Prairie Wind Farm, which would dot 3,500 acres north of Illinois 9 east of Bloomington-Normal. The County Board likely will not take up the issue until its January meeting.

Where's the best place for a wind turbine in Orland Park? What are the advantages of a geothermal system? Should the village add solar power to some of its buildings? These are some of the questions sustainability consultant Teresa Fourcher will help village officials answer. The village is expected to use up to $10,000 in grant money from its $200,000 Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant to pay Fourcher. Village manager Paul Grimes said most municipal staffs don't know a "hill of beans" about renewable energy so some help is needed.

The Livingston County Board at its meeting Thursday night approved amending the Streator Enterprise Zone Agreement, which had been in effect since the 1980s, so that several school districts in the county can benefit from the property involved in the Iberdrola wind farm project. ...County Board attorney Tom Blakeman explained that the county will abate the portion of property taxes involved with the wind towers. He said this would allow the schools to receive general state aid and then funds from Iberdrola.

The latest effort by a local computer business to go green has some residents in a nearby subdivision seeing red. Other World Computing's new wind turbine, 131 feet tall not counting its three 63-foot-long blades, towers over the open space and farmland that surround it just southeast of Woodstock. But some residents of the Savannah Grove subdivision 1,600 feet to the west say it towers over them, as well. The refurbished turbine went up over the course of an October weekend to many residents' surprise, homeowner Ron Cyscon said.

The McLean County Zoning Board of Appeals will meet Nov. 17 to discuss four days of testimony and public comments on Horizon Wind Energy's wind farm special use permit application. "I want this board to have some time to review the documents that have been presented and think about the decision," said ZBA Chairwoman Sally Rudolph. Closing arguments were presented Monday night on a proposed 333-turbine project in eastern McLean County in the Towanda, Blue Mound, Martin and Anchor townships. The area is north of the existing 240-turbine Twin Groves Wind Farm in rural Arrowsmith, Ellsworth and Saybrook.

Concerns over "flicker vertigo," property values and flight paths for crop dusters were raised by area residents who voiced their objection Thursday to the proposed Black Prairie wind farm east of the Twin Cities. Horizon Wind Energy LLC is seeking a special use permit to locate about 333 turbines in Towanda, Blue Mound, Martin and Anchor townships, north of Illinois 9. ...After taking testimony for more than four hours, the zoning board continued the hearing until November. A date had not been announced as of The Pantagraph's press time.

Before anyone in Walnut signs any deals with any wind farm company, a forum will be held Sunday to discuss how commercial turbines could impact the community, one organizer said. Rockford-based environmental lawyer Rick Porter is scheduled to talk about the long-term effects wind farms can have. Porter is the attorney representing 39 DeKalb residents suing to block a 151-turbine wind farm that straddles the DeKalb/Lee county border.

The McLean County Zoning Board of Appeals will hold a third public hearing Thursday on Horizon Wind Energy's request for a special-use permit to build an expansion of the Twin Groves Wind Farm expected to cost in excess of $400 million. The hearing, the first opportunity for opponents of the permit to give testimony, will be at 7 p.m. at the county's Government Center, 115 E. Washington St. Two more hearings for permit foes may be scheduled for 7 p.m. Nov. 9 and 10, also at the Government Center.

Construction resumed Monday north of Ohio on the Big Sky wind farm, which may be operational by next winter. The wind farm's approaching completion has implications on the question of closing Ohio High School, although opinions differ on whether the money generated by the wind farm can solve the district's problems.

Woodford County is on the verge of losing $566,000 in wind farm building permit fees next year because of the failure to negotiate road agreements with Gamesa/Navitas. The Zoning Board of Appeals earlier approved special use permits for the Minonk and Roanoke wind farms, and they will come before the County Board when road agreements with the county and townships involved are completed.

Top Crop Wind Farm will start construction on Phase 2 of its Grundy County project this coming spring. The move comes on the heels of municipal approval Wednesday to reconfigure some portions of the Enterprise Zone - which extends east from Ottawa in La Salle County to Morris in Grundy County - to afford Top Crop a sales tax break on building materials.

It's all about location, location, location when it comes to Vermilion County's position in the wind farm industry. The county is already the site of four planned wind farm projects stretching from one in the southeast corner to three more along the western side. Most of Illinois - as well as the majority of Indiana, Ohio, Missouri, Michigan and Wisconsin - rate in only the second lowest category as far as annual wind speed is concerned, turning in a speed range of between 5 ½ and 6 ½ meters per second.

Dressed in warrior robes and helmet, Tom Kapraun raised his staff to the east. He was "tilting at windmills," he said, in classic Don Quixote style. Kapraun, of Lee, was one of about 30 people who were protesting Saturday about a wind farm company's desire to build six turbines in the village's jurisdiction, despite village leaders denying the developer's application.

Acciona Energy officials say phases two and three of their northwest Illinois wind farm project are still in development, and that Stephenson County likely would not receive revenue from these phases until at least 2011. "These projects are not going to be starting construction in 2009," said Eric Schneider, director of marketing and communications for Acciona Energy. "Even if construction were to start in 2010, they would not be completed and generating revenue that year. ... Revenue probably won't come in until 2011 and beyond."

As the nation moves to find more energy efficient ways to use resources, surrounding counties are deciding if a 100-turbine wind farm would be a step in the right direction. Winnebago County currently doesn't have an ordinance allowing or restricting the use of wind farms. A proposal by Navitas Energy Corp. was submitted in April and is the first wind farm plan to go before the northern Illinois county board.

Even though some of 151 wind turbines planned for DeKalb and Lee counties have already been built, citizens who oppose the project are confident they can still halt construction. "If we indeed prevail, and in our opinion, we will ... they will be stopped from ever turning (the turbines) on and will be asked to remove them," said Rick Porter, attorney for a 39-person group known as the Citizens for Open Government. On July 21, the group filed a lawsuit against all 24 DeKalb County board members, and Florida Power & Light Energy Illinois Wind LLC.

An attorney representing the Bureau County Board has released details of a dispute over a road agreement the county claims a wind farm company has failed to honor. Earlier this week, the county board voted to take legal action, in an apparent attempt to force Iberdrola Renewables Inc. to agree to assessed road damage linked to the company's work on Providence Heights wind farm in rural Tiskilwa.

Officials here are looking at harnessing the wind to help provide power to residents. A number of Geneva officials, both elected and city staff, attended a meeting last week dedicated to providing information about a project to build a power wind farm in Rochelle. The eight-turbine farm, scaled down significantly from the 100-acre farm originally proposed, would not be built until 2011.