County looks at wind farm issues

PRINCETON — The winds aren’t blowing too favorably for at least two Bureau County wind farms.

At Tuesday’s meeting in Princeton, the Bureau County Board voted to declare Providence Heights Wind LLC (formerly Crescent Ridge II LLC) to be at default with its road agreement for failing to fulfill its obligations to the county. Transportation Committee Chairman Steve Sondgeroth made the motion, which passed unanimously.

On Wednesday, Sondgeroth said the county is wanting to move forward with needed road repairs in the rural Tiskilwa area of the wind farm, but the county first needs engineering work/repair costs from Providence Heights. Some of the damage was done years ago. The roads in the area have been used not only by Providence Heights but also by the Crescent Ridge 1 and AgriWind wind farms. Providence Heights is the largest of the wind farms. Some of the repair costs may be handled proportionately, Sondgeroth said.

Tuesday’s county board action is a first step in getting Providence Heights to comply with the road agreement, Sondgeroth said.

Also at Tuesday’s county board meeting, the board heard Crescent Ridge 2 (formerly Eurus Crescent Ridge II) will not move forward at this time with further development of Crescent Ridge 2. The company therefore wants returned its $1 million in cash escrow for its decommissioning plan with Bureau County.

Bureau County State’s Attorney Patrick Herrmann said the $1 million cash escrow should be released back to the wind farm developers. The county board directed Herrmann to request a formal letter from the developers stating the company will not act upon its building permits at this time and is requesting the $1 million.

In other wind farm business at Tuesday’s meeting, Big Sky wind farm representative Karen House asked the board for an extension of 16 of the wind farm’s conditional use permits, which had expired in July.

The proposed Big Sky wind farm is expected to have 114 turbines, each at 2.1 megawatt capacity, spreading across 13,000 acres in Ohio Township in Bureau County and East Grove and May townships in Lee County.

House said the developers hope to begin access road and other work yet this fall for Big Sky. The developers can hopefully work at the wind farm site through Thanksgiving, but the turbine erection won’t begin until next spring, she said.