Wind Energy Conversion Systems (WECS) are coming to Tippecanoe County, Indiana.
This is a good deal for the farmers and other land owners. I understand they receive a nice annual stipend for each WECS that they allow to be constructed on their land.
On the negative side I have also heard that they pretty much give up all options in using their land different from what they now have. For instance, they may not be able to plant a tree or build a barn without the permission of the operators of the WECS.
For the non-participants living in the area of wind farms, there are no benefits unless they happen to enjoy the view of the WECS. Some do. Most don’t. These people do have the concerns of noise, shadow flicker, and potential danger in the event of failure on the brake systems when the winds are extremely strong. There is a pretty good chance that the value of their property will go down, also.
Ah, but the county benefits. For each commercial or non-commercial wind farm (one or more WECS on a single plot of land – or on two or more contiguous plots) the developer will be charged $2500 plus an additional $200 for each actual wind turbine. That’s just for starters. Each year there will be an additional $1250 per wind farm and $100 for each WECS unit. Actually, these are minimum charges.
A farm of 50 WECS units will bring the county $12,500 the first year and $6,250 for each additional year. Ten such farms and the county has a nice chunk of change added to the coffers. Sixty-two Thousand five hundred dollars would look real good as an addition to MY bank account, but it’s not a lot for the county. Still, they want to get all they can. And I’ll bet they just find ways to spend it rather then cut taxes a little.
There is a lot of controversy about the WECS themselves. This article is not intended to discuss if they are a good idea or a bad one. It is more about the process that took place to get the ordinances passed this last Monday.
The first reading of ordinances 2010-02-CM and 2010-03-CM took place 5 weeks earlier, at a previous Tippecanoe County Board of Commissioners’ meeting. The first ordinance amends the county code adding a new chapter to regulate the wind turbines. The second one is to regulate the fees the county will collect from the WECS operators.
Two weeks later, at the next meeting, the ordinances were brought up for the second reading. A few members of the public made comments, mostly negative to either the WECS themselves or the ordinances. As a result, the commissioners decided to table the second reading until the next scheduled meeting. That was this last Monday.
It does appear that the commissioners did consider some of the concerns of the citizens of the county. They lessened the burden on the owners of what are referred to as Micro WECS. These are smaller, non-commercial units. That was only one of a few concerns raised at the March 15 meeting.
The county attorney, David Luhman, got things rolling by reading a list of changes that had been made by the commissioners to the ordinances. The list was quite extensive. If the minutes were posted as of this time, I’d count the number of changes – presuming the minutes are complete. So while I can’t tell you how many changes there were, I can say it took 20 to 30 minutes for Luhman to read them all.
In spite of the many changes, it seemed to me that the only real effect the changes would have would be on the Micro WECS. There may have been a slight tightening up of the decibels permitted by each WECS. I am not sure and don’t have a copy of the version prior to these changes. (As a side note, and before I forget it, I’d like to thank Paul Wright for refreshing my memory on a few details in this article.)
After Luhman’s reading of the changes, the public was allowed to comment. There were some comments in favor of the passing the ordinances as they were, but most wanted additional changes or objected to the wind farms completely. One of the suggestions I heard a couple of times made a lot of sense to me. It was to separate the Micro WECS regulations completely from the larger units – give them their own set of rules. It would have made things clearer, in my humble opinion.
After 13 or 14 members of the public had their say, board president, John Knochel, stated that his stomach was starting to growl so he would only hear two more citizens.
Maybe Knochel should have breakfast on the mornings of the meetings. Or if he does eat breakfast, maybe he needs to have a snack just before the meeting starts. This meeting only lasted a few minutes over two hours. At the time of the start of the meeting it had been about 12 hours since I’d eaten. I had no problem waiting until ALL of the public who wished to comment had the chance to do so. I’d have liked to hear the rest and they should have had the opportunity to speak. But maybe the board didn’t want to hear the rest of them.
After the limited public had their say, it was quickly moved to vote on the second reading. The second reading of both ordinances passed three to zero. No surprise. Actually, I don’t recall ANY ordinance passing with anything other than three to zero except when one of the commissioners was absent.
Now let’s review what happened. The county attorney read a list of changes that took 20 to 30 minutes to get out. The public (you know, the people who pay the salaries of these commissioners) were overwhelmingly against the ordinances as they stood.
So even though the changes were so extensive as to make it, for all practical purposes, a new bill, this was treated as a second reading. It would seem to me that if a bill is amended between the first and second reading, it should be considered a new bill (keep the old number) and given a new first reading. This is especially true if the changes are as extensive as these were.
But, no, this modified bill was treated as the same bill, given the second reading, and passed.
Passed against the will of the people.