Alfred supervisor says town cut out of wind profits

Alfred, N.Y. - The Town of Alfred's planning board submitted its first complete version of wind energy laws Thursday night, while Supervisor Tom Mansfield and others expressed anger at knowledge the town is being omitted from payment arrangements between Alfred State College and the Village of Alfred.

The first version of the Alfred town wind law is largely the same as the Town of Hartsville's, requiring a turbine setback distance of 2,640 feet from buildings, a 1,000 foot setback distance from a non-participating property line, a $250 per megawatt one-time application fee, a $4,000 per megawatt annual fee, along with a slew of other regulations.

Empire State Wind Energy of Oneida has contacted the Alfred village and town boards and the Almond village and town boards and expressed interest in a 10- to 30-year project. Empire Wind is researching the feasibility of a roughly 20-turbine farm with 2.0 megawatt turbines about 400 feet in height.

The company - which does not have a functioning wind farm to date - continues to contact landowners about potential leases and has maintained that Alfred is a good host community.

Several turbines are reportedly being considered on the ASC property, complicating legal aspects of a project as to what laws have to be followed between overlapping authorities.

As town officials take a closer look at the proposed town energy law, attention has turned to profit sharing.

"The town is concerned and why shouldn't we be? We are not going to get any revenue from this project if the majority of the turbines are on ASC land," said Mansfield. "As it stands, ASC would make payments to the village for windmills on their property, but exclude the town."

Clerk Janice Burdick said town officials are researching the matter and are concerned about being excluded.

"I don't know how you can legally do that. I'm not sure you can decide who to share your profit with," said Burdick.

Mansfield, who is in the beginning months of his first term as town supervisor, said details about this were not clear to him until he met with John Anderson, president of Alfred State College, and Craig Clark, mayor of Alfred and ASC interim vice president of academic affairs, during a private meeting Wednesday.

"This hasn't really came out to the public yet ... A lot of people are going to be very angry. At this point, (ASC) is only going to be sharing revenue with the village," said Mansfield.

Anderson said "I can't comment on that" when called by The Tribune this morning. He said he was getting on a plane and did not have time to talk.

Mansfield doubts that more than five to six turbines would be constructed off of ASC property, leaving him to question the value of a project on town property.

"We have to ask ourselves if its worth it," said Mansfield.

The planning board's law caps turbine maximum height at 450 feet and mandates they be at least 1,500 feet from wetlands.

Mansfield said he has not heard from Keith Pitman, CEO and president of Empire Wind, about revenue sharing or the pending law.

Empire Wind is in the process of gathering and analyzing test wind tower data to see if Alfred has a viable wind resource. The company has yet to release results of data research and Mansfield said he was told they will be complete in two months.

The next Alfred community wind meeting is at 7 p.m. March 18 at the Alfred Village Hall.

Town officials will hold a special meeting to discuss the proposed energy law at 7 p.m. March 25 at the Alfred Town Hall.