Plans for wind park bring controversy: Proposal to build windmills, how money from them can be spent are at issue

BEAR CREEK TOWNSHIP, PENNSYLVANIA - Windmills created whirlwinds of conflict at two recent Pennsylvania township meetings.

First, Bear Creek township supervisors approved an ordinance that loosened the rules of how they can spend money gained through wind farms in the township.

Later in the evening, the township's planning commission approved a 60-day extension for Energy Unlimited to address a host of concerns raised by the commission last month.

Energy Unlimited hopes to open a 25-turbine park at Crystal Lake. That park would be the second in the township. Community Energy currently operates a 12-turbine wind park on Bald Mountain.

But that park's future isn't certain because the project's developer, AES Corp., recently quit.

The Commission's extension came despite Chairman Joe Yenchik's protests, who believes the current plan "is not the same plan we once reviewed."

If that project is approved, the ordinance passed could change how the potential $75,000 yearly payments to the township would be spent.

The amended ordinance removes a yearly cap on how much can be spent from the fund, eliminates a requirement that a voter referendum must decide how the remaining money may be spent if the fund stops generating revenue, and adds six new uses on which money from the fund can be used.

The fund was originally only for reducing property taxes, constructing municipal buildings and acquiring land. The money may now also be spent on municipal buildings in any way -- including repair, which was explicitly excluded from the original ordinance, recreation activities and facilities, windmill expenses, including consultation fees, roadways within the township, planning commission and zoning board expenses and an Act 537 sewage update.

Former township supervisor Willard Kresge and township auditor Ted Carl, both critics of Chairwoman Bonnie Wasilewski, say the amendment will allow her to use the wind park funds to cover general fund budget shortfalls she created when she splurged on municipal appointments upon joining the board in January.

At the planning commission meeting, Energy Unlimited announced the project's developer, AES Corp., had quit.

Commission member Ed Benkoski said the developer left because "they got fed up with the nonsense." He said a few other companies have expressed interested in taking on the project.

Benkoski said the project was given preliminary approval in November 2003 if Energy Unlimited addressed nine concerns.

The concerns were addressed, he said, but the commission requested 28 more changes to the proposal last month. Energy Unlimited "in good faith" attempted to address the issues, but couldn't incorporate two of them, he said.

That's when Yenchik called for a brand-new submission of the plan, "which would have basically killed the project or held it up for two or three years," Benkoski said.