April 10, 2017
Pennsylvania

No answers yet on wind farm

By Jim Dino | Standard-Speaker | April 10, 2017 | standardspeaker.com

HUDSONDALE – How a proposed wind turbine farm that is ticketed for Broad Mountain will impact Packer Twp. won’t be known until a proposal is actually made, the township zoning officer said.

Martin Cichowic told the township supervisors Tuesday night he has received several phone calls relative to the wind turbine farm.

But he had no answers for callers, he said.

“There really is no true, concrete information at this point,” Cichowic said. “I have not had an application. There seems to be a lot of miscommunication. People have to understand this has to come together before anybody could truly understand what it is. I don’t know what the magnitude of the project is. Nobody knows how it is going to affect everybody. Until it is presented to us as an application, what is the truth?”

Four years ago, wind developer Jay Gartlan wanted to put wind turbines on the mountain, which is partially in the township and partially in Nesquehoning. But that application never went through because the applicant never paid the fees associated with it, Cichowic said.

Packer Twp. is forming an electrical cooperative with Nesquehoning in which the municipalities will buy their power in bulk, and the savings will go back to the communities rather than to a private company, like the companies that buy and sell power to customers.

Nesquehoning Borough Council President David Hawk confirmed he and fellow council members met with Gartlan earlier this year, and that Gartlan offered to be a power supplier once the cooperative is set up.

Last month, Packer Twp. Supervisor William Swinesburg said the potential wind farm has “nothing to do” with the power cooperative.


URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2017/04/10/no-answers-yet-on-wind-farm/