East Hill WInd Farm News Archive >Back to News Archive Reunion hosts a turbine tour 6/23/05 Cooperstown Crier, Jim Austin Cherry Valley, NY - Reunion Power took a busload of people on a tour of the 20 turbines in the town Fenner Saturday to show them which way the wind blows. Reunion Power is currently testing wind in Cherry Valley in anticipation of putting up a wind farm there and conducted the tour to provide an educational overview of wind power. Most of the tour participants were Cherry Valley residents and many of them own land that may be part of the wind farm or is very near to it. The bus tour was hosted by public outreach consultant Marion Trieste and Reunion Power's project manager David Little. "My job is to help educate people so they can make decisions based on information and not propaganda," Trieste told the group. No members of the Advocates for Cherry Valley, a group that opposes the wind farm, were on the tour, but an invitation was forwarded to the group, according to town supervisor Bob Loucks, who did attend. "Marion Trieste and David Little told us previously their intention in Cherry Valley was non-negotiable. We have been to Fenner many times over the last three years and are very familiar with the site," said Andrew Minnig, a long-time member of the Advocates. "We saw no education we could extract from a bus trip to Fenner. We also have been in contact with Fenner residents who have been negatively impacted by the project. We were confident they would not be interviewed and we were informed that was, indeed, the case. Essentially the bus trip was a dog and pony show." Saturday's tour was not only an opportunity for Reunion to provide information about wind power, but also to hear from residents what they may be worried about. Project manager Little said there has been interest in wind power in Cherry Valley for a number of years. Cherry Valley, he said, has the attributes a developer would look for - wind speed, access to transmission lines and access to the sites where the turbines would be located. But the most important, he said, is that a wind farm must be built where it is wanted. "Where folks support it," he said. "We believe Cherry Valley has some of the best wind in New York State," Little said. He explained the situation there is unique because it is the last ridge before the Mohawk Valley. The winds hit the ridge and accelerate downhill. "The wind in Cherry Valley is outstanding. Cherry Valley has what we believe are the attributes for wind energy," Little said. The two sites Reunion is studying in Cherry Valley would cover over 2,000 acres, but the disturbance to the surface would cover only six-tenths of an acre per turbine, Little told the bus tour participants. "The disturbance to the land would be very minimal," he said. The additional land is required to be able to site the turbines advantageously for exposure to the wind, allow the proper spacing between turbines and to accommodate the proper setbacks from residences. Little said Reunion sees wind farm development as a collaborative effort with all stakeholders in the community. "It's not about what we want to do, but what makes sense for the community," he said. As the tour bus passed the wind turbines along Route 20 in Madison County, Little said they made "a dramatic impact on the landscape." "Do they blend in or are they a blight?" he asked. "That's a decision everyone must make for themselves. What people are really concerned about with wind power is the viewshed." Little said one of their jobs as developers is to site a wind farm and the turbines so they are the most visibly pleasing. "These are things we can do as developers," he said. Lighting on turbines is another important issue and he said it would be fair to say not all of them in Cherry Valley would be illuminated. "We believe a lot of care will be taken so the impacts are minimized," he said. A wind farm, Little said, will also add a significant source of revenue to the community through a payments in lieu of taxes program. "It's a stable source of income that will be there for some time," he said, adding that because they do not use community services they are a net benefit to the community. The bus tour was met by Fenner town supervisor Russell Carey and two other residents who spoke briefly before participants got an up close look at the turbines. Carey said the town of Fenner enjoys a payment in lieu of taxes from the developers there that amounts to $5,000 per KW of generating capacity per year. The payments will continue for 15 years when the turbines will go on the tax rolls. He said the town went through three years of study and public meetings before the turbines were approved. "We spread out the turbines to preserve the lifestyle and quality of life," he said, adding that there are things they would probably do differently now that they have lived with the turbines. Sometimes, he said, small changes in where a turbine is located can lessen the impact on people living in close proximity to them. Susan Snyder, a Fenner resident and self-described environmentalist, said she has come to embrace the wind farm. "I think they fit in the rolling hills perfectly," she said. Snyder said from her home she can see the Nine Mile Point nuclear energy facility which poses a very real danger, but if she turns and looks in the other direction, she sees the turbines which represent clean, renewable, green energy. Carey said the town assessor could see no negative impact on property values and that one of the largest impacts was increased traffic from people interested in seeing the turbines up close. "I used to know every car that went by," he said. The town supervisor said that so far, the wind farm in Fenner has been very positive. "You get used to them. I don't notice them anymore," he said. Cindy Campbell, a property owner at he bottom of Cherry Valley's east hill, was on the tour and said she believes totally in the idea of wind energy, but was not entirely sure how she would like living next to them. "Noise is still an issue. There's not as noisy as I thought they would be," she said. "I hope the noise and light issue will be carefully mitigated." Art Ritter, another East Hill property owner, described the turbines as "not as visually intrusive." "The noise was very low. More noise came from the cars than the wind turbines," he said. Little said they are very close to completing their negotiations with landowners and that in the best case scenario and pending all approvals, construction of a wind farm could begin in 2007. >Back to News Archive