For the third time in the past six months, Liberty/Algonquin Power of Canada, sent out letters on Dec. 1, to Muscatine County landowners inviting them to a meeting at the West Liberty Fairgrounds on Dec. 13, regarding lease agreements for their proposed 650’ 6 MG wind turbines development. My property is one selected for such a lease agreement.
This week, Triple Oak Power, a company who first targeted signing lease agreements for turbines in the Durant area of Muscatine County a few months ago, sent a messenger to my doorstep with a Triple Oak card to call and visit with them to sign a lease agreement for their project. They are now expanding their proposed 650-foot-high turbines development from West Liberty to Nichols and to the Johnson County line.
Firstly, I am disturbed by how each developer is trying to garner lease agreements and that landowners do not know 100 percent of the ramifications to their property if they sign which they can never revoke. Educate yourselves, and NEVER sign unless you get legal help.
Secondly, I have been repeatedly asking the supervisors of Muscatine County to review our paltry ordinances in-place on wind turbines, to be pro-active, and to update our wind ordinances to be up to the standards of other Iowa Counties NOW. After my last request at the Oct. 2 Supervisors meeting for ordinance amendments and public input, a supervisor’s response to my concerns was shockingly complacent.
I urge you to contact the supervisors for open public discussions of the current ordinances before Liberty or Triple Oaks signs up enough landowners to begin the petitioning process for a permit to stick a shovel in the ground. Then, the protection the county needs will be too late.
I urge all landowners who are contacted to educate yourselves on the 40-plus pages of the lease agreement that can stop you from ever planting a tree again, ever building a new barn or silo, silencing you forever complaining about the jet-like noise of the turbine or flicker effects that make you or your neighbor sick, and the fine print that will renew your lease as long as the company wants.
Rhonda Staley Meredith
Nichols