BURLINGTON – A series of lawsuits involving contractors who haven’t been paid for their services in constructing the Waverly Wind Farm have been continued to Thursday of this week in Coffey County District Court, and are being watched closely by people on both sides of the brewing debate over a wind farm project in eastern Anderson County.
Seven separate cases involving contractors who worked on the Waverly wind energy project last year and earlier this year were filed with initial hearings set the first week of June, but each of those cases were continued until a 1:30 p.m. hearing time this Thursday, June 28.
A statutory lien is a provision under state law that allows a creditor to make a financial collection attachment to certain real …
... more [truncated due to possible copyright]BURLINGTON – A series of lawsuits involving contractors who haven’t been paid for their services in constructing the Waverly Wind Farm have been continued to Thursday of this week in Coffey County District Court, and are being watched closely by people on both sides of the brewing debate over a wind farm project in eastern Anderson County.
Seven separate cases involving contractors who worked on the Waverly wind energy project last year and earlier this year were filed with initial hearings set the first week of June, but each of those cases were continued until a 1:30 p.m. hearing time this Thursday, June 28.
A statutory lien is a provision under state law that allows a creditor to make a financial collection attachment to certain real estate or personal property or other assets belonging to a individual or company which owes unpaid bills. Debtors are unable to sell or otherwise transfer that property until such liens are paid, and in some cases the property can be subject to further court actions like foreclosure to force its sale for payment of the debt.
Lien filings involved in the Coffey County case include Lampson International LLC vs. EDP Renewables North America LLC, TNT Crane & Rigging, Inc. vs. Olsen Beal Associates, Irving Crane, a division of Irving Equipment Inc. vs. Waverly Wind Farm LLC, Olsen Beal Associates vs. Blattner Energy, Inc, JMS Wind Energy, Inc, vs. Waverly Wind Farm LLC, United Rentals (North America), Inc vs. RUF Waverly Farm, Laramie Enterprises, Inc., vs. Waverly Wind Farm LLC.
Attorneys for some of the plaintiffs above did not return messages from the Review in preparation for this article.
The case filings in Coffey County do not directly involve a project underway by Houston, Tx.,-based Calpine Corporation to place a 100-turbine wind farm along thousands of acres of high ground on the eastern side of Anderson County, but one of the organizers of Landowners Against Windmills, the group organized to protest the project, says it’s relevant news.
“What you see in these projects is a lot of financial juggling,” said Burt Peterson, one of LAW’s organizers. “They can be sold to different players numerous times before the project’s done. Someone’s dodging paying somebody else what they owe them.”
Supporters of the project in Anderson County say it will pay them good money for leasing their land for windmill sites. Opponents claim the 500-foot tall turbines would be a blight to the local landscape, devalue neighboring property, and that the leases force legal conflicts with pre-existing mineral leases and force landowers to foot litigation costs. It is not known how many acres the company has secured in local leases.
County commissioners said recently a wind test tower in southeast Anderson County which was downed by vandals last month will be subject to special use permit provisions in order to be re-erected. The county’s zoning director allowed the tower to be initially built without being subject to that process.