The winds of change met voices of opposition Wednesday night, when Don Giecek, Invenergy's business development manager, pitched a plan for a wind farm to a crowd of 60 Bent Mountain-area residents at the local fire and rescue station. Invenergy wants to build 15 turbines on Poor Mountain and sell their power to Appalachian Power Co.
The winds of change met voices of opposition Wednesday night, when Don Giecek, Invenergy's business development manager, pitched a plan for a wind farm to a crowd of 60 Bent Mountain-area residents at the local fire and rescue station. Invenergy wants to build 15 turbines on Poor Mountain and sell their power to Appalachian Power Co.
Community members listen to plans to build on Poor Mountain.
The winds of change met voices of opposition Wednesday night, when Don Giecek, Invenergy's business development manager, pitched a plan for a wind farm to a crowd of 60 Bent Mountain-area residents at the local fire and rescue station.
Invenergy wants to build 15 turbines on Poor Mountain and sell their power to Appalachian Power Co.
"I saw a lot of opinions and not a lot of statistics," said Ed Elswick, the Roanoke County Board of Supervisors representative for the Bent Mountain community. He gave people at the meeting three minutes each to speak.
Seated side by side, Annie Krochalis of Bent Mountain and Carol White of Copper Hill voiced environmental concerns.
White …
... more [truncated due to possible copyright]Community members listen to plans to build on Poor Mountain.
The winds of change met voices of opposition Wednesday night, when Don Giecek, Invenergy's business development manager, pitched a plan for a wind farm to a crowd of 60 Bent Mountain-area residents at the local fire and rescue station.
Invenergy wants to build 15 turbines on Poor Mountain and sell their power to Appalachian Power Co.
"I saw a lot of opinions and not a lot of statistics," said Ed Elswick, the Roanoke County Board of Supervisors representative for the Bent Mountain community. He gave people at the meeting three minutes each to speak.
Seated side by side, Annie Krochalis of Bent Mountain and Carol White of Copper Hill voiced environmental concerns.
White asked Giecek about the windmills' effects on bats and birds -- suggesting that air pressure from the blades will cause animals to hemorrhage internally and fall from the sky. Giecek said his company will try stopping the windmills at dusk during late summer, when bat migration peaks.
Krochalis said the construction would destroy the forest.
"This will not be Poor Mountain again as we see it," Krochalis said. "If you have bears in your trash can now, you might as well build a little doghouse for them."
Tammy Belinsky of Copper Hill asked where revenues will go. Invenergy plans to invest $80 million to $100 million in the project, with Roanoke County taxing a percentage of the profits.
"My point was that they were going to make a lot of money at great cost of this community," she said.
Attendees also worried their property values would plummet because the industrialization would be an eyesore. Giecek said they won't on the whole.
Ending the meeting two hours after it had started, Elswick suggested the community take a bus trip to a windmill farm.
Before the county board of supervisors votes on the proposal, the community will hold more meetings, he added. If it passes, Invenergy receives permits and the Federal Aviation Administration approves the structures, the turbines could be built by late 2012.
The Poor Mountain project is one of a handful of commercial wind farms that have been proposed in Virginia. With construction set to begin in spring, Highland County will have Virginia's first such farm.