Gamesa Energy Project Developer Josh Framel attended Tyrone Borough\u2019s work session last evening and offered council increased figures in the proposed lease agreement for a 10 to 15 turbine wind farm on the Ice Mountain watershed property.
\nFramel proposed to council to increase the Option Period pay in the lease agreement to $5,000 per year, which is solely for the option to lease the land. The original proposal was $1,500 per year. Gamesa also proposed to increase the $6,000 per windmill per year for the Operation Period to a new figure of $7,000 per windmill per year.
\nAlso in the original proposed lease agreement between the borough and Gamesa, during the Operation Period, the borough would either receive $6,000 per windmill per year (which Gamesa is now proposing $7,000), or three percent of the gross annual electricity revenue, whichever is greater. Framel told council that Gamesa is now willing to increase that electricity revenue to 3.5 percent the first 10 years, four percent the following 10 years, and 4.5 percent the last 10 years of the proposed 30 year lease agreement.
\nThose figures are again, based on if the gross annual electricity revenue would be greater than the proposed new figure of $7,000 per wind mill per year.
\nFramel told borough council members that the increased figures are based on wind resource information from the Gamesa meteorological test tower currently installed on Ice Mountain. He also stated to council that Gamesa would be willing to get involved in community projects if council voted to erect the wind farm, but he didn\u2019t elaborate on how or what the company would do at this time.
\nFramel asked council if a vote on the wind farm project could be taken at next week\u2019s borough council meeting, but Mayor James Kilmartin informed Framel that council was not ready to make a decision this month.
\n\u201cWith every wind farm project we have to go through regulations for windmills,\u201d said Framel. \u201cWe have to work with the Pennsylvania Game Commission, we have to work with the Department of Environmental Protection, the conservation districts, we have to do surveys for property lines and all those sorts of things. They all have to happen before anything can move forward.\u201d
\nHe added, \u201cGamesa has several projects we\u2019re working on in different stages that are allocated, and if we\u2019re going to allocate to different projects, we need to do it at a certain time of the year. Otherwise, we can\u2019t do it.\u201d
\nFramel said that Gamesa has reached a point where the company needs a vote to know whether the Ice Mountain project is ready to move forward, because of everything that Gamesa has to do to prepare for its next steps in the project if council votes in favor of the lease agreement.
\n\u201cA lease does not mean a wind farm, it enables us to get what we need to get done,\u201d added Framel.
\nAlso at last evening\u2019s work session, Decker Hollow resident Richard Baumgardner spoke to council during public comment about the proposed Gamesa wind farm on Ice Mountain. Baumgardner said he would be the closest home to the wind farm, and that his property on Alder Run Orchard adjoins the borough\u2019s watershed property.
\nBaumgardner informed council that his home would be within 2,000 feet of the project, and that he is in favor of the wind farm. He said that he has made trips to other wind farms in Pennsylvania and feels that the noise levels of the turbines are \u201coverblown.\u201d
\n\u201cOur county is a good spot for clean energy, and I think the wind mills are rather majestic looking,\u201d said Baumgardner.
\nBaumgardner stated that he feels Gamesa does a \u201cgood job\u201d with its projects and that borough council should vote for the wind farm project on Ice Mountain. He added that he is not presently being compensated by Gamesa.
\nJuniata Valley Audubon Society President Dr. Stan Kotala also attended the work session last night and handed council members updated information about the \u201cSave Ice Mountain\u201d public forum on March 26 from 6:30-9:30 p.m. in the Tyrone Area High School auditorium. The information included background and credentials of the four speakers attending the forum.
\nThe Daily Herald will publish Dr. Kotala\u2019s presented information as the date of the public forum nears.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Gamesa Energy Project Developer Josh Framel attended Tyrone Borough\u2019s work session last evening and offered council increased figures in the proposed lease agreement for a 10 to 15 turbine wind farm on the Ice Mountain watershed property. Framel proposed to council to increase the Option Period pay in the lease agreement to $5,000 per year, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1290","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news-in-the-tyrone-pennsylvania-area","category-excerpts-from-the-tyrone-daily-herald"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1290","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1290"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1290\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1290"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1290"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1290"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}