Wind-turbine plans up in the air  

Credit:  David Smith, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, www.arkansasonline.com 22 August 2010 ~~

MARSHALL — Bradley Ragland and Charles Baker agree that the proposed installation of more than 100 wind turbines on Star Mountain and South Mountain would change Searcy County.

However, Ragland and Baker have widely divergent opinions on what that change would be.

Ragland sees new jobs and landowners’ profits igniting the stagnant economy of Searcy County, with per capita income of $20,488, the lowest in Arkansas, according to the most recent data available from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

[...]

But Baker believes the wind turbines would create constantly irritating noise, harm to birds and wildlife and, most critical to him, possibly damage five springs on his 55-acre property on 1,980foot Star Mountain, which is about 10 miles southwest of Marshall.

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