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Whitley Co. Plan Commission gets wind of residents concerns on wind turbines: wane.com

Dear Blog readers:

Yes, it is hard to believe isn't it? Would these people rather have a coal-fired power plant or maybe a nuclear power plant in their back yard? How about a fracking operation?

Laura Ann Arnold

Whitley Co. Plan Commission gets wind of residents concerns on wind turbines

Updated: Thursday, 22 Mar 2012, 1:04 PM EDT
Published : Wednesday, 21 Mar 2012, 10:26 PM EDT

• LaMar Holliday
  

COLUMBIA CITY, Ind. (WANE) -- Instead of hearing from the Whitley County Plan Commission about the wind turbines, the commission had to listen to the public's feedback.

"I don't want them real close to me, that's the whole reason why I'm here tonight," said P.D. Rhoads.

Rhoads is against having the turbines, but says everyone has their own point of view on the matter, but some people just didn't want to hear from the other side.

One of the speakers who wanted Whitley County to see the benefits of the turbines was Kelly Kepner, the Economic Development Director for Benton County. She drove three hours to this meeting.

"I just wanted to share the economic impact of what Benton County has experienced through the wind farms," said Kepner

She was interrupted just minutes into her report because the local people wanted the plan commission to hear from them. Kepner said there's a big picture and even bigger pay off if Whitley County goes with the plan.

"It's just not your local businesses and the farmers, but your communities, you also have every resident in the county now is going to be seeing a tax break," she said.

The plan commission will decide whether to recommend this idea to the Whitley County Commissioners. It's not clear just when that decision might come. We'll continue to follow the story.