BY NOW, you’ve probably heard some of the hubbub over the windmills planned for the Crystal Lake area of Bear Creek Township.

Even if you’ve only paid scant attention, you probably realize that not everyone’s in favor of the turbines.

Opponents say the windmills are not as harmless as you might think. Opponents say they will hurt the habitat. They say they will kill wildlife and should be considered an industrial park, not a gentle-sounding “wind farm.”

When we first heard of the windmills they seemed like a reasonable, environmentally friendly way to create energy. Now, we’re not so sure.

Lots of intelligent and socially conscious people are raising relevant questions.

We ran a story about one of those questions last week. The story asked if recreating in the winter around the turbines will be safe. Some say the propeller blades can throw heavy chunks of ice hundreds of feet, endangering hikers, cross-country skiers and snowmobilers.

Of course, supporters of the turbines say critics exaggerate, and vice versa.

We’ll try to stay in the middle.

We encourage all residents of Luzerne County to find out more about the windmills and their effect on the land.

After all, this is your land.

It was purchased from Theta Corp. in 2003 using several million dollars of county bond money and state money. The county and state promised in press releases that the land would be preserved and used for recreation.

However, without fanfare, Energy Unlimited had already purchased the wind rights from Theta for the turbines.

That surprised us, and at least one county official, commissioner Stephen Urban.

He said he feels he was misled into agreeing to help buy thousands of acres of former Theta land without being forewarned about the turbines.

We feel a bit misled too.

And that makes us more committed to getting to the bottom of the controversy. We’ll be writing news stories about the many facets of the turbines and how they came to be planned. We’ll also follow the zoning issue debating whether nine more turbines should be approved for land very near Crystal Lake.

We hope to keep you informed. We’re not sure where we sit yet regarding those nine windmills still not approved.

We are sure, though, that we – and you – deserve more information.

Certainly more information than was revealed when the county agreed to help buy this land.