Community does not want ‘partnership’ with Everpower

First Posted: 3/5/2014

I read with disbelief the letter from Everpower Wind’s Jason Dagger that the company has demonstrated strong partnerships with communities where it operates.

A strong relationship with reclaimed strip mines in Cambria County, Pa., seems an odd way to look at things. Perhaps another way to evaluate its relationships would be to examine what happened in Allegany, N.Y., where it sued the town for asking for a noise study. In dismissing the case, the judge said Everpower’s conduct was “willfully obstinate.”

Closer to home, the people of Champaign County have been in court for years trying to stop Everpower from going forward with a project that nobody wants. They are now headed for the Ohio Supreme Court.

The Belle Center Village Council and Richland Township in Logan County, and McDonald and Taylor Creek Townships in Hardin County have all unanimously adopted resolutions against the Scioto Ridge project — they do not support it or want it in their community. The Ohio Power Siting Board requires case information to be placed in local libraries but the Belle Center Free Public Library was not even given case documents until someone requested them, even though the entire town is surrounded by this project.

Worse yet, these wind developers don’t need or care about a community partnership because our voice in the end doesn’t even matter. Our state government has stripped away our local authority to enforce or enact zoning for or against these projects. All the more reason that our county commissioners should not grant any tax abatement to this developer. A forced industrial development on a rural community … it sure doesn’t sound like a “strong partnership” does it?

Michael Shepherd, Belle Center