June 22, 2018
Michigan

Residents worry township leaders are pushing for wind turbines

By James Felton | WNEM | June 21, 2018 | www.wnem.com

The often-controversial wind turbines are stirring up residents in a Mid-Michigan community.

Residents worry their leaders are out to change local ordinances to make it easy for utility companies to put up fields of gigantic windmills.

“Surprised I wasn’t notified that they were making these changes,” said Pete Campbell, Monitor Township resident.

Campbell believes local leaders in his Bay County township are trying to pull a fast one.

He feels they may be looking to change a local ordinance to pave the way for bringing wind turbines in his community.

Campbell is a pharmacist and he said some of his customers have health issues as a result from living near turbines.

“Whether it’s the noise, the sonic vibrations, the lights blinking and what not. A lot of these people, they complain of fatigue. Which in turn can lead to depression and anxiety,” Campbell said.

TV5 went to Township Supervisor Ken Malkin to ask the tough questions.

“I think we could do better. I mean, I knocked on doors last weekend to try to improve that and get feedback and that was one of the big complaints we had. And you know, one of the biggest complaints was we had just put out a newsletter that didn’t mention anything in it. We need to do better and I think we will,” Malkin said.

He said he wants everyone to know he plans to propose putting a discussion on changing the ordinance on hold.

“In other words, there will be absolutely no windmills or wind turbines allowed until we’ve finished updating our ordinance and it’s been adopted by the board,” Malkin said.

He said any changes to the ordinance need to be made with his residents in mind.

Malkin is looking closely at the ordinance adopted by neighboring Beaver Township. That community stopped DTE Energy from putting wind turbines there.

“If I had it my way, I want DTE to call me tomorrow and say that we’re not coming. That’s what I’d like,” Malkin said.

But Campbell isn’t buying it. He suggests Malkin might be saying one thing and doing another.

“I have friends that he has spoken with on a personal level. They’re not hearing that from him or have not heard that from him in the past,” Campbell said.


URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2018/06/22/residents-worry-township-leaders-are-pushing-for-wind-turbines/