STATION EDITORIAL

Posted March 22, 2021

This is a station editorial, I'm Randal J. Miller, station president.

We applaude the recent decision by the DeWitt County Regional Planning Commission when they voted not to recommend attempting to rescind the Alta Farms  proposal to build a wind farm in northwest DeWitt County.  

In that meeting, DeWitt County State's Attorney Dan Markwell indicated that rescinding what's called the "S-U-P" allowing the Alta Farms project to proceed, could result in legal and financial headaches for DeWitt County.

The issue of wind farms in DeWitt County, has been a very emotional one over the past several years, with strong feelings on both sides of the issue.  But, after extensive testimony to the R-P-C and the County Board as a whole on 2 different occasions, the County Board narrowly voted in favor of the wind farm ordinance, thus allowing Enel Green Power's Tradewind Energy Alta Farms wind project to proceed.

We're not here to re-hash the merits or de-merits of wind farms in DeWitt County.  We're looking at this strictly from the costs of extensive litigation, that DeWitt County taxpayers would end up paying.

The DeWitt County Board has a right to hold the developer accountable in every phase of construction.  To not do that is shirking their responsibility.  But, there's a difference between providing accountability, and building legal road blocks which would mean some very expensive lawyer bills to be paid by the county, with no guarantee of the outcome.

We hope that both sides of this emotional issue will realize that further litigation against the other, will just fill the lawyer's pockets, and could possibly not have the outcome they want.

We encourage the members of the DeWitt County Board to continue being thorough in making sure that all of the taxpayers' money is being spent correctly and prudently.  

Because, that's what they're elected to do.

That's our opinion, we welcome yours.  Our e-mail address is editorial@randyradio.com.