Nothing public about next wind farm hearing
Planning and Zoning Director Paul Miller has determined that on Monday, May 11, beginning at 9 a.m. at Northern Illinois University, a public hearing is to be held related to the Florida Power & Light wind farm proposal amendments. There is nothing “public” about this public hearing.
Taxpayers are forced to choose between earning a livelihood or attending the hearing. This is another example of county officials deliberately designing the public hearing process to place all burdens on the taxpayers while providing undue advantage to FPL. It is neither fair nor reasonable for DeKalb County officials to use such a financial weapon against the citizens.
To further make attendance unpalatable, the public hearing location is the Carl Sandburg Auditorium in the Holmes Student Center at NIU. County residents will be subjected to distant parking, parking fees, long walks and a less-than-impartial setting.
The standard public hearing time in DeKalb County is 7:30 p.m. In fact, DeKalb County has held public hearings in various townships at 7:30 p.m. Why do our county officials insist on a work-day, marathon wind farm hearing? The obvious answer is to prevent the public from attending, and therefore rationalize their biased vote favoring FPL’s special-use permit. Other counties appear more willing to accommodate their citizens. McLean, Livingston and Logan counties in Illinois held wind farm hearings over three, five and more evenings.
This wind farm hearing process is a flagrant violation of our rights as DeKalb County taxpayers and most especially for those forced to endure a lifetime of living within the shadow of 133 industrial wind turbines, which are 400 feet tall. The Holmes Student Center, with its 16 floors, has dominated the county skyline but will now be dwarfed by these 40-story towering turbines.
The taxpayers and residents of Afton, Clinton, Milan and Shabbona townships deserve to have the public hearing(s) held in our townships at a time when we are able to attend. A series of meetings held in each township at 7:30 p.m. would allow this process to be conducted in a reasonable and fair manner as is the right of the citizens of this county. Our county officials have yet to provide a fair and reasonable hearing process concerning the FPL application.
Sherry Hellmuth
Afton Township
21 April 2009
