Warren School Board votes to abate wind farm property taxes
The Warren School Board met in special session Monday night, June 8, 2009, and voted to abate property taxes for three years for the EcoGrove and Wolf Creek wind farm projects.
The board voted five in favor and none opposed to the abatement of taxes for the EcoGrove farm, or phase one of the project, and the same for phase two, or the Wolf Creek farm.
Board member Nolan Mullen excused himself on both votes citing a possible conflict of interest.
At stake is approximately $210 million in property taxes over the next 20 years with approximately $2.1 million going to the Warren School District.
Warren School President Kip Sabinson said he feels the board’s decision to abate is good for the district.
“We are confident that this is the right decision for the district,” Sabinson said. “Under the agreement, we will receive incentive monies amounting to $31,666.67 for each of the next three years to use as we see fit.”
School Superintendent Karen Sirgany said their hope is that the agreement to abate will bring new industry into the Warren School District.
“One of the big issues was that to bring industry there has to be some kind of incentive and this is hopefully the incentive to help the Warren School District,” Sirgany said. “This agreement should bring 20 permanent jobs and 125 temporary jobs to the area and hopefully this will lure other businesses to the Warren area.”
Board member Becky Riedl said she was pleased with the decision.
“It’s definitely a good thing for our district,” Riedl said. “We’ve got a revenue stream.”
Jeff Hammond, representing EcoGrove and Wolf Creek wind farms owner Acciona Energy said the company is very pleased with the board’s decision.
He explained that there were two options available to the board.
“There was a PILOT program and that was going to be paid over four years, but when you look at the numbers it really does make sense to abate for three years, get it done, and it’s lesser of an economic impact,” Hammond said. “The board looked at their options very closely. They did a lot of homework on both options and they felt that the three year abatement was the smarter decision.”
He added that now, the company will focus on developing the second wind farm.
“The power production will run pretty close to double on the second farm,” he said. “We expect to add up to 116 more towers with a rating of about 175 megawatts.”
Cheryl Kneubuehl, Executive Director of the Northwest Illinois Development Alliance expressed her satisfaction with the vote results.
“We’re very happy that the Warren School Board voted the way they did,” Kneubuehl said. “I think this is good for the present and the future. It’s going to help encourage more development in our area. It will also bring more employment opportunities, more investment and in the end, more tax dollars to all the taxing districts.”
By Tony Carton
9 June 2009
Tags: Wind power, Wind energy
Some possibly related stories:
The copyright of this article is owned by the author or publisher indicated. Its availability here constitutes a "fair use" as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law as well as in similar "fair dealing" exceptions of the copyright laws of other nations, as part of National Wind Watch's effort to advance understanding of the environmental, social, scientific, and economic issues of large-scale wind power development. For more information, click here.
