Site ideally suited for wind projectI noted with some interest a letter in your paper several weeks ago commenting on the attractive drive from Jordanville to Van Hornesville, then criticizing our wind energy project. Let me present another side. The project is primarily situated on the high plateau (or mesa) crossed by Jordanville Road between Jordanville to Van Hornesville. Those of us who live here can testify to the almost constant winds. The plateau is basically a rocky output of Devonian Limestone roughly 30 million years old, not likely to collapse in the next 50 years. While ideally suited as a wind energy site, the plateau soils are shallow, acidic and rocky. Not really good for farming or development. You will see much of it growing up in weeds in sharp contrast to the surrounding very rich drumlin fields. A large majority of us involved in this project are dairy farmers and retired people who would like to keep their properties intact. Meanwhile, states to the east and south of us are buying up development rights on operating farms in order to keep as much area as possible in open land. We can do the same here with our wind farm project, but at no cost to the taxpayer. None of us wants our farms to go to housing developments. The Jordanville Wind Farm presents us with the best opportunity to keep our farms intact, especially at this time of selling milk at 1980 prices. If forces outside our towns can stop this project, we will eventually be forced to sell building lots to pay taxes and operating expenses. There will no longer be access to thousands of acres for snowmobiles and hunters who now enjoy miles of open field and woods. None of us are independently wealthy, but we do have a proud heritage with roots in American agriculture, that in many cases go all the way back to the pre-Revolutionary times. While we are not socially elite, we do not carry this heritage lightly. I would urge you to visit the wind farm sites in Madison and Lewis counties. You may very well find them not ugly, but an aesthetically pleasing and relaxing site. We rarely see anyone sightseeing on Jordanville Road now. I can readily see this working closely with the motel and tourist industries of Herkimer and Otsego counties. We would really like to see our many friends and the tourist and medical industries give some real thought and energy to our project. Bruce Banks Jordanville
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