Big Sky’s Charley Parnell: ‘We’re progressing on schedule’
As the weather gets colder and the ground is beginning to harden, work on the Big Sky wind farm project remains right on schedule.
Charley Parnell, spokesman for the Edison Mission Group, said this week plans for 2009 included 25 foundations to be poured by the end of the year, and 17 were completed as of Dec. 1.
And as for the rest of the foundations?
“They’re digging as we speak,” Parnell told the BCR Tuesday.
Work resumed on the Big Sky wind farm Oct. 19 after technical and financial problems caused the project to be put on hold in July 2008. The $500 million project will eventually include 114 turbines spreading across 13,000 acres in Ohio Township in Bureau County and East Grove and May townships in Lee County.
On Tuesday, Parnell confirmed construction is on schedule. In addition to the foundations, road work is also underway. After the ground freezes, Parnell said work will then continue on the collector system. The turbines themselves should be erected during the summer and fall of 2010, and the farm is scheduled to be fully operational by late 2010 or early 2011.
Parnell said landowners are kept up to date with events, and a letter was sent out Nov. 20.
“We’re progressing on schedule, and we’re pleased,” Parnell said.
The Big Sky project has been the subject of much interest in the Ohio Grade and High School Districts. The 74 turbines planned for the districts will bring in an additional $19,536,000 in equalized assessed valuation, more than doubling the districts’ current $13 million EAV. At current tax rates, that would mean an additional $803,000 for the high school and $735,000 for the grade school.
At November’s high school board meeting, in which board members voted to not place a question about the future of the school on the ballot, board member Carol Debruhl said she based her decision to take no action in part on the future impact of the wind farms.
“It would be premature and actually irresponsible to make a decision at this point,” Debruhl said.
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