Personal wind turbines taller than 35 feet are illegal, the town's Zoning Board of Appeals decided Monday. The ZBA voted unanimously at its monthly meeting that Roger D. Alexander's 92-foot-tall residential wind turbine is in violation of the town's zoning law. "It is theoretically a turbine, but we have nothing in the zoning laws to do with that," ZBA Chairman Edward P. Bender said. "So we're going to treat it as an accessory structure."

A town resident is in a dispute with the town's zoning board over her neighbor's wind turbine, which she believes is too close to her property. "I want it down," said Mary C. Grogan, a seasonal town resident who lives next to Roger D. Alexander.

A wind-power moratorium on just a portion of a town doesn't make sense. That's according to the Jefferson County Planning Board, which considered Cape Vincent's proposed six-month moratorium for wind power development in the lakefront and river front districts at its meeting Tuesday afternoon. The members of the board approved a townwide moratorium, which was not presented to them, rather than the town's proposed partial moratorium.

The town board heard overwhelming opposition Monday night to a proposed law governing wind farms. Almost 175 people filled the Hammond Central School gymnasium, with 45 speaking against the law and seven supporting it. Concerned Residents of Hammond President Nancy J. Parrish said the new law was nearly the same as the version her group took to court last year.

With rising heating oil costs and electric bills, and the push for more environmentally friendly energy, it's to be expected that there will be more folks like Thorn hoping to harness the power of wind. One has already surfaced: Jerry Collier told the Victor Town Board a few weeks back that he has been thinking about putting up a turbine on his Rawson Road property. But Collier will have to wait, as the Victor Town Board has just enacted a six-month moratorium on wind turbines while it looks at getting local codes on the books to regulate them. It's a wise move on the board's part.

Prattsburgh town officials will meet Tuesday to consider hiring a sound expert to draft a general noise ordinance aimed at regulating wind turbines. The board's action followed an initial report by Seth Waltz, president of Avl Designs, Inc. of Pensfield, on his preliminary study of noise in Prattsburgh, the neighboring town of Naples and wind farm in Cohocton operated by First Wind.

Round two of the reviews of the environmental assessment of the proposed St. Lawrence Wind Farm took up where round one ended. Like the first draft, the supplemental draft environmental impact statement has a high number of comments - more than 60 by state officials and members of the public.

The Town Council will hold a public hearing at 7 p.m. Monday at the town office, 12105 Town Barn Road, to consider a three-month moratorium on wind development.

The Prattsburgh town board took no action on a proposed tower permit law after holding a public hearing on the law Tuesday night. A number of residents questioned the need for the law since the town was advised by state officials last winter it could not issue building permits because there were no town laws regulating cellular or wind tower construction.

Debate continues looming over a plan to put wind farms up in one Southern Tier town.Community members in Prattsburgh have one main concern when it comes to wind turbines going up in their neighborhood. That concern is the noise the turbines will make.

The Grindstone Island militia can stand down. A group of startled Clayton residents who mistakenly believed the Town Council was trying to create a new Wind Energy Facility Overlay District on Grindstone Island planned to oppose the rumored wind district at an annual council meeting on Grindstone.

When the Hammond Town Council presents its new law regulating wind energy to the community July 27, residents will find it's almost identical to the regulations adopted in December. While the town board has changed some of the wording, the proposed law still calls for setbacks of just 500 feet from roads and boundary lines and 1,500 feet from off-site residences.

The noise you can hear may be a problem for some individuals living near wind farms, according to Rochester- based acoustician Seth Waltz. But the noise you can't hear may be more troublesome and difficult to predict, Waltz, of avi designs, inc., told the Prattsburgh town board recently. "There is no way to guarantee you won't have a problem," Waltz told board members.

The public will have a chance to weigh in on a moratorium on commercial wind development in the town of Bath on Aug. 10. The public hearing was set Monday by the Bath Town Board after approving a draft of the six-month ban on commercial wind turbines. The measure is precautionary since there are no known plans by an energy company to build a commercial wind farm in the town.

The Town Council here rescinded its motion, in a split vote, to enforce the town's wind-facilities law on a project belonging to Penn Energy Trust. That clears the way for the company to develop a 13-turbine wind facility for the Rand Hill Road area through a conditional-use permit originally granted to Windhorse Power, LLC, on Jan. 31, 2007.

Arkwright Councilman Jeff Dietrich couldn't get a second to his motion Monday to have Horizon Wind Energy and the town sign with Attorney General Andrew Cuomo's ethical standards regarding wind energy development. ...When he and Councilman Roger Cardot began discussing their opinions regarding this issue, Supervisor Fred Norton closed them down ...Dietrich said a wise teacher once told him "Stand by your principles or stand alone; I guess I stand alone." He then walked out of the meeting.

Potential wind farmers will have to wait at least until January before building turbines to harness the breeze. On Monday night, the Victor Town Board adopted a six-month moratorium on wind turbine development while a committee devises a code to regulate the turbines. All board members voted for the measure except for Peter Hessney, who was absent.

Laws regulating wind farms and a presentation on noise issues highlighted the special Prattsburgh town board meeting Tuesday night, July 7. The town is the site of proposed wind farms by two energy companies, Ecogen and First Wind.

While a new wind power development zoning law is in a holding pattern, the Town Council at its August meeting will consider a moratorium on all wind power development in the river and lake districts. On Thursday night, Supervisor Thomas K. Rienbeck suggested a yearlong moratorium "since we can't seem to come up with a suitable zoning law dealing with wind power."