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Construction of Logan County's 1st wind farm inches closer
Decommission agreement gets approval 'pending'
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[November
01, 2008]
One big "if" stands in the way
of completing conditions that would allow the construction of the
first wind turbines in Logan County.
In August, Union Ridge Wind, opponents of the Rail Splitter Wind
Farm, did file a court appeal on the conditional use of
agriculture-zoned land for the construction of a wind farm. The
Logan County Board granted the conditional use to Rail Splitter Wind
Farm and Horizon Wind Energy in July.
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 The appeal would need to be dropped before the county would sign one
of the agreements necessary for meeting the conditions set forth by
the Logan County Zoning Board of Appeals and accepted by the county
board in July.
The company is working on a few other fragments as well, but it
is looking hopeful, according to Bill Whitlock, development director
for Horizon Wind Energy.
Prior to the county board granting approval for conditional use
of agriculture-zoned land for the wind farm, some residents
organized as Union Ridge Wind and heavily opposed it. Some members
of the group said that they would follow the next course of action
open to them and file an appeal in Logan County Circuit Court.
Whitlock said that Horizon had been talking to the residents for
months now. "I believe we have an agreement in principal in place,
and part of that agreement is that the appeal is withdrawn," he
said.
In response to board member Gloria Luster's inquiry, he said that
he hoped it might be completed next week
"We're close to negotiating neighbor agreements with every one of
them," he said later. He emphasized that they have not had hard
feelings toward those who have been in opposition. "We're not
treating the objectors any different than the supporters," he said.
The recommendation by the appeals board included that the
builders would meet various common agreements, obtain permits and
satisfy an additional list of 18 conditions.
A decommissioning agreement was one of the required agreements.
The measure would assure that funding would be set aside to pay for
the removal of the wind turbines, cleanup and restoration to farm
acreage, should the farm fail financially or when the turbines age
out of use.
During last week's board meeting, Whitlock said, "We're anxious
to begin construction in Logan County as soon as we satisfy every
one of these conditions, and this is one of the very last conditions
we have to meet."
Whitlock explained their current position: "The transmission
lines where we're tapping in with Ameren only have two scheduled
outages every year. There is a winter outage and a fall outage. If
we don't get construction complete in Logan County in time to tap in
for the winter outage, we'll lose six months of revenue from all the
turbines in Logan County."
He said they had an agreement that included costs that engineers
gathered from industry standards. It defines that a surety bond
would be set up for $1 million during years 1-5, increasing to
$1,352,932 in the sixth year; and after that it adds to the previous
amount either 2 percent or the consumer price index, whichever is
greater.
Both Rail Splitter Wind Farm and Horizon Wind Energy would sign
the agreement.
Various members of the board had some questions about the
agreement, and there were apprehensions whether the state's
attorney's office had actually given final approval.
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Finance chairman Chuck Ruben pointed out: "The chairman signs all
contracts. In all cases the board votes first before the chairman
can sign." So the board decided that it would be best to call a
special adjourned meeting this week.
On Monday evening Logan County zoning officer Will D'Andrea,
Jonathan Wright from the state's attorney's office, Horizon
representatives and their lawyer met to review the agreement.
Thursday night D'Andrea said he had two things that he would
recommend to the board from that meeting:
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There were some
revisions to the agreement, and he would like to have
confirmation of the final revised agreement from the state's
attorney's office.
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He advised that the court appeal
against the wind farm would need to be withdrawn before the
chairman would sign the agreement. He said that even with the
changes made this week, the decommissioning agreement would not
cover if there were towers already built and approval of the
project was overturned in the court.
The board agreed with D'Andrea's recommendations and voted to
approve the chairman signing the agreement pending all conditions
met and when the court appeal has been withdrawn.
Following the meeting, D'Andrea said he was certain that as soon
as all the conditions have been met, the agreements and permits
secured, and the appeal has been withdrawn, Horizon representatives
would be in for their building permits. He hoped that it would be
soon, and he would gladly sign them.
Soon, the real work of building the first wind turbines in Logan
County may begin.
[By
JAN YOUNGQUIST]
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