Some of that windiness felt at City Hall lately might be put to a good use: powering a city-owned building. But neighbors around a Walnut Hills site where a wind turbine will be installed weren’t too happy about the choice.

The Ohio Department of Natural Resources opposes open lake wind turbines such as the ones that an energy task force has urged Cuyahoga County commissioners build on Lake Erie, a state wildlife biologist said. Mark Shieldcastle, who spoke to the Greater Akron Audubon Society on Tuesday night at the Sand Run Metro Park in Summit County, said it would be nearly impossible to monitor the mortality rates of migratory birds killed by open water turbines. “We’re trying to get land-based studies first,” said Shieldcastle, a wildlife biologist with the Crane Creek Wildlife Research Station between Sandusky and Toledo. “There are a lot more ramifications and challenges to look at the risks to birds in open water. I wouldn’t know where to start.”

Local leaders propose a windy addition to the Lake Erie horizon - massive wind turbines that would crank out megawatts and spin off research, development and jobs. An energy task force will recommend to Cuyahoga County commissioners next month that the region pursue a demonstration project of four to 10 turbines, spinning at least three miles out on Lake Erie. It would be an unprecedented venture - while European countries have water-borne windmills, the United States has none, task force officials said. And there are no freshwater wind turbines in the world, they said.

The practicality and ecological consequences of erecting a wind turbine on the Maumee Bay shore will be the subject of a study for which the Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority board of directors yesterday approved hiring two consultants. The port board also took a procedural step that will allow a local preservation group to assume ownership of the Toledo Harbor Lighthouse.

PORT CLINTON — A wind-turbine company is trying to get City Council to invest in exploring the possibility of joining an alternative energy experiment with the federal government at Camp Perry. Representatives of North Coast Wind & Power LLC told council Tuesday night that the U.S. Air Force might install a wind turbine at Camp Perry as a possible source of supplying electricity to the military installation and local municipalities.

The $53,500 grant is being dispensed as part of the Value Added Agriculture Product Market Development Grant Program. The money will fund a feasibility study of wind energy including wind testing using altimeter.

The village of Elmore installed a 50-meter Meteorological Monitoring Tower Friday, Aug. 25, in conjunction with North Coast Wind & Power, LLC, on village property next to the Ohio Turnpike. The tower will monitor wind and weather conditions for a 12 to 18-month period to collect data for a feasibility study.

If early renderings are any indication, Cuyahoga County's new administration building will be a glassy, multistory affair symbolic of commissioners' desires to project an eco-friendly, transparent image....... The wings meet a glassy, 10-story office building, highlighted by corner atriums. Plans showed roof-top gardens and wind turbines atop the office building.

A new task force wants to know if Cuyahoga County's energy future is blowing in the wind. The county commissioners this week appointed a 17-member body to craft an alternative-energy policy that will focus initially on the promise of wind power.