August 14, 2014
Indiana

Commissioners to discuss Wildcat Wind Farm at special meeting

By Martin Slagter | Kokomo Tribune | August 13, 2014 | www.kokomotribune.com

The Howard County Commissioners will conduct a special meeting Thursday to “consider matters pertaining to the Wildcat Wind Farm project.”

Details of the meeting, which will be held at 7 p.m. in room 338 of the Howard County Administration Center, are not yet clear, but are likely to focus on future wind development in the county. The agenda for the meeting also includes “adoption of proposed order establishing new precincts in Howard County.”

Howard County Commissioners Paul Wyman and Tyler Moore would not offer further comment regarding the Wildcat Wind Farm discussion, only that it will include “all matters” of the project.

Action regarding Wildcat Wind Farm, which has been a subject of contention with residents on the east side of Howard County, has been at a standstill in recent months since commissioners approved a revised economic development agreement with E.ON Climate & Renewables for two phases of the wind farm in September.

Phase II of the Wildcat Wind Farm would place a grouping of turbines in the southeast corner of Howard County, while Phase III, which would cover a much larger area of the county, would add them to Howard County’s northeast corner, starting about a mile and a half northeast of Greentown.

Phases II and III of the wind farm extend over into Grant County. E.ON officials met with members of the Grant County Commission in April to amend that economic development agreement and to discuss the deadline for starting construction of the farm. Commissioners have stood by their deadline of Dec. 31, 2014, for E.ON to begin construction, according to Grant County Commissioner Michael Burton.

Burton said it is now up to E.ON to file for permits to start construction, but the wind farm developer has not done so with the Grant County Plan Commission. E.ON must complete construction in Grant County by Dec. 31, 2015.

“We’re sticking with the original date,” Burton said of the deadline for E.ON to begin building. “We have the economic development agreement approved, which puts the ball in E.ON’s court.”

Representatives from E.ON were not available for comment.

URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2014/08/14/commissioners-to-discuss-wildcat-wind-farm-at-special-meeting/