Wells County folks weigh benefits of wind farm

PONETO, Ind. (WANE) - There's a heated debate on whether or not to put up more than 100 wind turbines in southern Wells County. Thursday night, people had a chance to voice their opinion on this matter.

There were mixed emotions from the crowd. It's hard to say how many people are for building these wind turbines. Most of the folks turned out to see if their land would be effected.

"It's going to definitely change the countryside. There's no question about that," resident, Bob Prible said.

"I really hate to see the farm ground used for this purpose," resident, Sue Hansen said.

More than 100 people turned out to learn more about a proposal to build wind turbines in southern Wells County.

"General interest in what's going on. We've had some people with some questions about how noisy they'd be what if they'll have shadow flicker impact or how close they are to their residence or property lines," Wells Co. Planning Commissions Michael Lautzenhiser said.

One woman's concerned the wind turbine company isn't telling the whole story. She said there are a lot of questions about whether the energy gained from the turbines will even be used in Wells County.

"In reality it's going to go the electricity is going to go into a national grid and then from there be dispersed into your larger cities," Hansen said.

Farmers came to see where these turbines will be placed.

"I was just a little concerned as far as where the turbines were going to go, how the roads were going to be laid out that kind of thing so we dont have a bunch of point rows or angles," Prible said.

All in all, the planning commission says there will be a benefit to the county.

"Could drastically or at least reduce the real estate taxes for farmland and for houses in the townships that have turbines," Lautzenhiser said.

Everyone's weighing whether it's worth it to build these turbines.

"I think they'll find them very annoying," Hansen said.

"I think as for the environment it's probably a positive type of energy," Prible said.

Chester, Liberty, and Nottingham townships are where they're proposing to build more than 100 turbines. If everything goes as planned, they could break ground as early as the second half of 2012.