May 7, 2012
New York

Farmer wants to build wind turbine in Victor

Reported by: Chris Conte, www.13wham.com 7 May 2012

Victor, N.Y. – A farmer in the town of Victor wants to erect a 140 ft. tall wind turbine on his 142 acre apple orchard but some of his neighbors aren’t too thrilled with the plan.

“It’s good for the environment, it’s (the electricity) going back into to the grid some of it,” says Munir Bahai who own Pick Your Own Inc. on Route 444 in Victor.

The 73-year-old farmer came up with the plan to build the wind turbine late last year. He says he wants to use some of the electricity to power his roadside apple store.

“We might be able to save some money but I don’t think we’ll be able to recover the cost of the whole thing,” he adds.

Munir says engineers have surveyed his farm and found a spot at the top of the hill that gets plenty of wind and would be perfect for generating power to spin a turbine.

“It’s approved by the state…it will be visible from the road but it’s not that close to the road,” he says.

But at least one of his neighbors doesn’t want to see the turbine go up.

“We weren’t given what we consider to be timely notice 30 days prior to the town planning board meeting,” says Sue Ornt who lives a few houses down from the farm.

Sue says she worried about what the turbine will do to her property value. She’s also worried about what the 140ft. tall turbine will do to her view which right now is mainly dense forest.

“You really don’t realize how big they are until you’re standing by it… we don’t think it was neighborly to have a project like this going without informing the neighbors,” she adds.

The Victor Planning Board will be on Tuesday night to vote and discuss the planned turbine.

[article removed by request, to protect the innocent]


URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2012/05/07/farmer-wants-to-build-wind-turbine-in-victor/