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“The only thing green in wind energy is the color money;” Floyd County reacts to the possibility of a wind farm
Credit: Karen Kiley Reporter, www.wdbj7.com 9 August 2011 ~~
Translate: FROM English | TO English
Translate: FROM English | TO English
Floyd County is known for it’s green initiatives.
Local businesses have solar panels, a hotel recently built the only electric car charger in the area, and recycling bins line the streets.
But for many in Floyd County, wind is not welcome.
Wayne Booth grew up on a Floyd County farm. Since childhood, his unobstructed view of Wills Ridge is something he’s always taken for granted.
“He said, ‘You have all this beautiful view’, and I said ‘yeah, but that don’t put any pounds on my beef cattle’,” Booth laughed, recalling a recent conversation he had with the county assessor.
But now, the mountain top above his farm, known as Wills Ridge, is shaping up to be the battle ground for a possible wind farm.
“They say they have a woosh, woosh, woosh sound and then the hum of a generator,” Booth explained of the noise that would disrupt his pristine countryside if a wind farm was built.
He took his concerns to the Floyd County Board of Supervisors.
“I have brought with me 426 signatures,” said Booth as he handed the petition against the wind farm to the Board of Supervisors.
Other residents attended the BOS meeting to voice a similar opinion.
“Do we want to see our property values go down because of these things? Because that’s what’s going to happen,” said one resident Raymond Sinclair.
“I don’t think we should give away our ridge top to the greed of corporate America.” said another resident Dave Dixon.
“I implore you, beg you, not to let this happen, because once it’s done it cannot be undone,” said another resident Ramona Dixon.
Just one lone voice spoke out in favor of the wind farm.
“We need to sit and think of these things. We need to bring in businesses into Floyd,” said resident Cecilia Rudasil.
The board of supervisors took no action at it’s meeting on Tuesday.
Horizon Wind Energy says the project is still in the very early stages.Nothing has been decided yet.
Horizon still has to build a meteorological tower on the site to study the wind; just gathering that data, typically takes two years. No final decision will be made before that data has been collected.
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