Big money and Big Sky
OHIO — An area landowner has filed a $1 million-plus lawsuit against the Big Sky Wind company.
On June 3, Friesland Farms filed a two-count lawsuit against Big Sky Wind. Larry Gerdes is a major shareholder and president of Friesland Farms, which owns four farms all located less than one mile from the wind farm.
“I bought what was a very special farm to me about eight years ago called the Baumgartner Farm,” Gerdes said Friday. “I milked cows there when I was in high school. It is some of the best land in our township, and I spent about $150,000 to $200,000 totally restoring all the buildings and the house.”
Gerdes, who has been active in resisting the proposed Green River Wind Farm, said he is later coming to the Big Sky project because he was not aware of it. The Big Sky project is a $500 million project that 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. Much of the road work and foundation pads have been completed, and the turbines are scheduled to be erected yet this year.
Gerdes said he started hearing about the Big Sky wind turbine farm about a year ago.
“I never knew about the Big Sky Wind Farm and don’t ever recall having been given notice,” he said. “When we went to the county courthouse to look, they have our address in there, saying they mailed us a notice. I or my farm manager don’t remember receiving a notice, but can I prove that? No.”
Gerdes said now his roads are torn up, two tall test towers with blinking red lights were put across the road, and a pad has been put in place for a turbine.
And there have been problems that Gerdes says are intentional.
“An access road on the maps I later received was supposed to go to Baseline Road but very coincidentally changed and was put in right across from my front drive,” he said. “I know it was (intentional.) Absolutely, they know who I am. These people are powerful.”
According to the first nuisance complaint of the lawsuit, all four farms have decreased and will continue to decrease in value due to the “planned and imminent development, construction and operation of the Big Sky wind farm.” In addition, the development will make it more difficult to lease the rental home on one of the properties.
The second count asks for preliminary and permanent injunctive relief by protecting the values of its properties and preserving “the status quo in terms of the use and enjoyment of its properties.”
“Now I’m faced with a farm I wanted to buy all my life. I spent all this money restoring, and I’m going to have a wind turbine that will create shadow flicker. It will make noise; it will prevent spraying from east or west — that’s the way this farm runs. It will have an impact on the value of my farm, and nobody asked me for my permission, and my zoning commission didn’t protect my rights,” Gerdes said.
Gerdes said he has a personal obligation to fight the wind farm.
“I’m trying to save other people like me,” he said. “It just amazes me that a county, who has a responsibility to its citizens, would allow itself to be almost romanticized on the green aspects and the tax dollars of putting up industrial wind farms with no regard for setbacks.”
Gerdes said residents will regret the wind farms in the future.
“I think it’s going to be one of those deals that in 20 years people in the county will be sitting there scratching their heads and saying, ‘What have we done, and now how do we get rid of these?’” he said.
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