Thanks, commissioner, for joining meeting
Kokomo Tribune | August 20, 2013 | kokomotribune.com
The Citizens for Responsible Development (CRD) were pleased to have Phil Heron, Tipton County commissioner, present at a meeting. He was invited by some of the members with the hope that he could answer some of the many questions and complaints regarding the Wildcat Wind Farm. Mr. Heron was very professional and patient, even under persistent questioning from the 75 or more people in attendance.
The main topic was the status of the hundreds of complaints submitted to the county government. Fifty percent of the complaints were about noise and shadow flicker causing health issues. Questioners wanted to know when the allowed 90-day grace period for repairs would end and when the turbines involved in violation of the WECS ordinance would be shut down. Mr. Heron indicated the 90-day clock started when the written complaints were submitted to the County Planning Commission and planning director by the CRD.
Questioners wanted to know if Mr. Heron was aware of the Dallas Walker family’s series of complaints, starting in January 2013 immediately following turbines going online. He said he was aware and had communicated with Mr. Walker. The next question was why haven’t the turbines causing those problems been shut down, 210 days have passed? Mr. Heron was asked if he will request Steve Edson, the planning director, to have E.ON turn off the turbines involved until the issues have been resolved. He said he will discuss it with Mr. Edson. Mr. Heron was asked if the commissioners decided to hire another employee to handle the complaints per Steve Edson’s request for help with his overloaded agenda. Mr. Heron was unaware of any new employees at this time.
Other members of the audience questioned why the many known transmission problems with TV, cellphone and Internet have remained beyond the 90-day period. He said he would try to get answers to those problems.
Another topic of discussion was property value guarantees. Mr. Dave Johnson spoke about his property value being zero. He has had no offers in his attempt to sell it after being on the market for more than a year.
The closing questions at the meeting wanted to know if Mr. Heron supported a longer moratorium for wind turbines, thereby allowing more time to study the issues. He did not have an answer at this time.
The conclusion I took away from the meeting was the wind energy companies do not possess a high level of ethics. And their deceptive actions are nothing more than a shell game.
Russell Turk
Sharpsville
URL to article: https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2013/08/20/thanks-commissioner-for-joining-meeting/