Thoughts changed about wind farms

To the editor:

I have worked for the Jay County Surveyor’s Office for the last 23 years.

When the first wind farm went in, I couldn’t have cared less and thought everyone was overreacting. I even thought they were neat.

After working around the wind farm, my opinion has changed.

I don’t know whether all the health issues everyone is talking about are real or not. But I can assure you my health concerns are real as they relate to what happens when an excavator hits a buried high voltage power line.

I recently did a job in the area of the wind farm and called 811Dig, but an underground power line did not show up on the report. I also had trouble getting information from NextEra. After a few days of back and forth I was told that there was a power line there and that it was unclear why it didn’t come up on the 811Dig report. What if I had just started to dig? Two guys were killed in Illinois recently when they hit one. 

I probably care more about tile than just about anyone else in the county does but I never dreamed the amount of damage that a 600-ton crane can do to everything it crosses. We have dug up three county tiles that were smashed, and there wasn’t even a hole or any way to know something was wrong.  What happens when neighbors fields and houses start having flooding problems?

Your cell phone often doesn’t work around windmills. Many people don’t even have home phones anymore. What happens when someone has a house fire or a health issue and cannot make a phone call?

When I went to visit family for a holiday meal we were trying to watch a ball game and every time a blade went by, the TV cut out for a split second. These may sound like trivial things but think about how much time you spend in the evening after work either watching TV or messing around on your phone? Do you think that would affect your quality of life? Would these issues improve with increased setbacks?

The vast majority of local property owners are good, honest, hardworking people. When someone pulls in a guy’s driveway and gets out a map with a dot on it and says “there’s where your windmill goes,” it’s a done deal. Then after signing he doesn’t even get a windmill.  I have heard that after landowners are signed up, they have problems getting responses from the companies involved. And they are supposed to be “your land owners” you care so much about.  If you think they care about this community, you are kidding yourself. 

When I heard there was the possibility that we could end up with more windmills my initial response was not, “Oh yeah, we own some ground and I can make some good money.” It was “Oh no, I don’t want these things anywhere near me.”

A year ago I might not have felt this way, but knowing everything I know now I would advise anyone who gets visited by anyone wanting you to sign a contract, please talk to your neighbors and see what they have experienced. Talk to people who have lived around them. Do research on them and talk to as many people as you can. Have a lawyer read the contract. Please do not just take these people’s word. Once you are signed, you are married to them for 30 years.

Finally, there is the issue of the list of property owners that was put on Facebook. While I understand this list is part of the equation, I do not agree with how it was shared. The people on this list are not the enemy. Do not let this issue tear apart our relationships with our friends and neighbors. Do not let this hurt our community any more than it already has or in the end we will all lose.

It will be interesting to see how all of this plays out. It will be interesting to see what our elected officials have to say and how they vote.

Chad Hirschy

Rural Portland