|
| • Charles Bates
in a Letter to the Editor, Pendleton-Times, 20 January
2005 Pendleton County Commissioners
and EDA members should carefully consider the close similarity
of eminent domain to armed robbery. Both acts involve the taking
of legitimate property by force, against the will of the property
owner. When is it moral for a group to do that which is immoral
for a member of that group to do alone? How dare anyone even
think of eminent domain in this situation? |
|
|
|
Bob Tuckerman in
a Letter to the Editor, Pendleton-Times, 13 January
2005 It is a known fact that
the 100 to 150 foot rotating blades of wind generators do
create unacceptable interference with microwave link radio
equipment often used in communications systems. I have no
knowledge of the potential interference with other types of
communications systems. Will the whirling blades affect your
satellite TV reception, cellular telephone use and the satellite
positioning (GPS) system that is becoming important in emergency
response?
I am sure, however, that detailed studies of this potential
problem need to be investigated extensively by experts in
the field. Such investigations should be made by independent
organizations not connected in any way with the company proposing
the wind generators in the county.
|
|
Tom Firor in a Letter
to the Editor, Pendleton-Times, 13 January 2005
The force driving this project
is the big profits to be made by people outside this county
from Federal Government subsidies and tax breaks. All the developers
and two of the three parties leasing the land for the 400-foot
towers are from outside Pendleton County.
Based on Tucker County's experience, virtually no local people
were hired for construction because it takes specifically trained
workers to do the technical work of assembling these 400-foot
towers according to specifications so the warranty will be valid.
In Tucker County, 200 jobs were promised and fewer than 10 local
people were hired.
Several acres of mountaintop will have to be cleared for each
400-foot wind turbine which will be mounted on a massive concrete
pad half the size of a football field. There will be huge disruption
of our county during construction with heavy construction equipment,
concrete trucks and trucks hauling the colossal sections of
these 400-foot towers from the railroad in Petersburg through
our county to Jack Mountain. |
|
|
|
Paulette Roberts, in a Letter
to the Editor, Pendleton-Times, 20 January 2005
Developer Tom Matthews, resident of Pennsylvania, president
of US Wind Force, a Delaware-based company, while defending
the agreement with the County Commissioners to provide eminent
domain for the developers' benefit, stated, "I'm going
to give you a little tough love here. If this community takes
the position that we want electricity but don't want it generated
in my back yard, well that's not my definition of looking at
the greater good — [Pendleton County needs] to step up
and provide more power for the rest of the United States."
I say it is not energy that Mr. Matthews and US Wind Force is
concerned with but millions of dollars from tax-free profits
and incentives. I say NO to Mr. Matthews. Pendleton County owes
him nothing! We do not want our land spoiled for his benefit.
How dare he! West Virginia has given and given and given. Of
its resources, its veterans (more killed per capita in all 20th
century wars than any other state), and its people. NO, Mr.
Matthews, we don't owe you a thing!
Teresa (Rader) Hannon in
a Letter to the Editor, Pendleton-Times,
13 January 2005
I have just noticed two of three test towers installed over
a year (maybe two years) ago on Jack Mountain about three miles
from Brushy Hill and Doe Hill, VA. They are not imposing and
I wonder if that was Liberty Gap's plan so they could collect
all their wind data and do planning with as little public knowledge
as possible.
One can view the towers if you
take 220 south, make a left at Cave Country Store, then take
Rt. 20, Thorn Creek Road, for 5.5 miles (stay to the right at
road fork at Totten Cemetery) you can see Jack Mountain to your
right. I was led to believe in the newspaper reports that this
wind farm idea had just cropped up over the past few months,
but in conversations with a few people in the area, I found
out that the small towers I had witnessed along the ridge were
installed as long as two years ago. The people I spoke with
didn't realize the ramifications these test towers would have.
I have to admit that I may have noticed them earlier but just
thought they were cell towers and had dismissed them as harmless;
little did I know that they are just a tiny hint of what is
to come. I have now become more observant as I drive around
the area and am surprised to see a lot of large white plus symbols
on the ground. They are used for aerial surveying.
Upon further inspection of the targets [that] I know were being
used for the wind farm, I found a yellow cap on the rebar in
the center of each white plus that said, "TRIAD WINC."
I think they are doing additional surveying to find alternate
routes for their transmission lines, maybe a route to the Naval
Base so they can bypass Franklin and thus calm some of the high-powered
opposition. So ask yourself when you see the large white targets
near your land, are they going to put the transmission line
in this area and over me? Or maybe they are planing for future
wind farms.
|
