Advocate has proven to be correct

There were plenty of dignitaries gathered together in a fancy tent near wind turbine 25 on Thursday.

But all of them knew that the most important individual present when it came to making the Bluff Point Wind Energy Center come to fruition was a guy not on the stage. It was a guy who would scoff at the notion that he was a “dignitary” in any way.

His name? Bob Lyons.

He’s not some honcho with NextEra Energy or American Electric Power. He’s a farmer and a township trustee and a retired teacher. And he’s one of the landowners leasing to the wind farm that has taken shape along the Jay-Randolph county line.

He has also been the project’s most consistent and persistent advocate from the very beginning.

This newspaper has published dozens, maybe scores of articles on the potential of a Bluff Point wind farm over more than a decade. One factor was consistent in all those articles: Bob Lyons was leading the cheers.

Again and again over the years, the wind farm seemed to be a pipe dream.

It sounded good on paper — a unique way of generating non-traditional ag income while at the same time generating renewable energy — but there were too many hoops to leap through, too many questions to be answered, too many mixed signals.

Gather a dozen people together at one point, and eleven of them would have told you it wasn’t going to happen. The 12th person would have been Bob Lyons. He believed, and he never stopped believing.

It would have been easy to give up.

If the wind farm was going to be built, it needed to have a buyer for the electricity that would be generated. At first, that seemed to be Indiana Michigan Power, which has a substation right in the neighborhood.

But then that plan evaporated, and the developers had to go looking for another customer before they could justify a $200 million investment.

In the end, ironically, it was a sister company of I&M, Appalachian Power, which like I&M is part of American Electric Power. If that sounds complicated, that’s because it was.

Then, when it seemed as if the project was to be a go, there were dozens of other questions. Questions about damage to roads and ditches, questions about decommissioning the wind farm at the end of its useful life. Lawyers and engineers had their hands full.

And some questions still linger — legitimate concerns about public safety issues for rural residents who rely upon antenna TV signals for storm warnings — and will have to be sorted out in the weeks ahead.

But you know what? The wind turbines are turning. Renewable energy is being generated. The 21st century ag economy has gotten another boost thanks to innovation.

And Bob has been proven right. — J.R.