August 11, 2013
Indiana, Letters

Aug. 11, 2013: Letters to the editor

Kokomo Tribune | 11 August 2013 | kokomotribune.com

Area needs turbines to just blow away

I must disagree that opposition to wind power is a small, vocal minority in terms of the population of county residents.

I have polled my non-participating neighbors. They are not in favor of the current and proposed industrial wind turbine development. I would predict a referendum would yield an overwhelming no on wind farms. I believe the opposition is the majority.

Now, if you ask a small group that signed secret leases and are anxious to divide up a $22 million, tax-funded pie, then you’re likely to get a different answer.

What pro-wind communicators need to learn is this county is made up of more than leaseholders and parasitic wind energy companies. There are better ways to fund the needs of the county without ruining the landscape, sabotaging property, health, wellbeing, and mortgaging every kid’s future.

What Tipton and surrounding counties need is wind energy to blow away.

David Barnard

Tipton

Juwi, leaseholders mad at wrong group

No one was expecting the action taken by the Tipton County Board of Zoning Appeals because we were all told the BZA had agreed to make an exception to its rules and procedures and hear the request from juwi. We thought the meeting was for the purpose of telling us how the hearing would be conducted.

When Mr. Acres began his statement by saying this was the first time the BZA board had met since the March meeting, then I sensed something was amiss.

I had read the articles in the Tipton and Kokomo newspapers reporting the BZA had agreed to hear the request and how the county attorney decided the BZA should do it. I wondered how the members could agree to hear it without having a meeting to make that decision, since only the BZA can decide to alter its standard practices. July 3 was the meeting to decide that, and it voted not to.

Juwi Wind and the leaseholders responded with very strong accusatory statements, claiming the BZA had done something wrong.

The BZA did not do anything wrong! The people who overstepped their authority and were reporting to juwi and the leaseholders the BZA had agreed to hear the request are those who are responsible for the deception.

Although I am on the positive side of the BZA’s decision, I understand why juwi and the leaseholders would be angry, since they were told the BZA had already agreed to hear the request. But the anger should not be directed at the three members of the BZA, who simply chose to stick with their current rules and procedures. Instead, the anger should be directed toward those who are in frequent communication with a company they signed agreements with and who manipulate their employees to carry out their wishes.

This should be a wake-up call to all citizens. Had it not been for three strong men who refused to be pushed around, then the arrogance and manipulation by self-serving elected executives would have continued. Follow the pecking order. Be angry at the bosses and not the BZA board.

Nancy Carney

Sharpsville

Politicians only listen to the good ol’ boys

The problem with Tipton County is that it’s been run by self-interested farmers for years! They still think they should have control and complete power over the entire county!

There are 274 farm families that own ground in the county, and a great percentage don’t live here. They want to control the 16,000 residents. They want to put wind turbines – as many as 850 units – anywhere in the county. For a few extra dollars, they are willing to lease their land for 30 to 50 years to a government program.

The BZA, after nine hours of testimony, ruled a setback from a property line of 1,500 feet for the juwi project was fair. The county council was very critical of this decision at its meeting Aug. 1. Some members even said such a decision shouldn’t have gone to them.

I agree. If council members would have done their jobs, it wouldn’t have had to go to the BZA.

This idea the Planning Commission and commissioners might write an ordinance with less of a setback than what the BZA set for the northern part of the county (to appease the farmers) might split the county further. The 1,500-foot setback from the property line should be a starting point for the ordinance. Anything less than that will divide this county for years! No one in their right mind will want to move here, and many will move out! If these farmers want to carry the tax base entirely, they will.

This county has ranked first and second in the country for the most fertile, productive soil. Are these farmers getting too lazy to plant crops that instead they want to plant concrete for wind turbines? I guess the farmers who sign up for these wind turbines want to sit in the coffee shops and just talk about the old times.

Is any one of these power-hungry politicians going to do what other counties have done and represent the majority of the people who elected them? Or are they going to do what their appointers want them to do?

Jim Leffler

Tipton


URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2013/08/11/aug-11-2013-letters-to-the-editor/