Anyone spending 10 minutes standing on the side of State Route 29 the town of Fairfield recently is sure to see a construction truck pass by.
In fact, they may even see five or 10.
But this seemingly endless flow of trucks is bringing the supplies in preparation for the real show: The delivery of 37 wind turbines that, when constructed, will measure more than 450 feet tall with extended blades.
Preliminary construction for the Hardscrabble wind farm project is in full swing in the central Herkimer County town of Fairfield, and one resident who spends a lot of his time along sees the trucks as a sign of something other than more traffic.
“I’m all for it,” said David Schreck, co-owner of Anndel Farm LLC on Route 28 with his wife Karen.
“I see it as bringing some economic stimulus to the area and some much needed revenues for the farmers,” David Schreck, 56, said. “They don’t bother me.”
The project started construction in mid-June with road improvements to Military and Dairy Hill roads, according to Paul Copleman, a spokesman with international energy company Iberdrola Renewables.
Atlantic Wind LLC, the company behind the project in Herkimer County, is a subsidiary of Iberdrola, which is based in Spain.
Access road construction for the turbines off of Dairy Hill Road, near Observatory Road is also under way.
A laydown yard for the project is being constructed on State Route 170, and includes storage containers, heavy equipment and aggregate hauling, Copleman wrote in an e-mail. Across from the laydown yard, the project is mobilizing a concrete batch plant, he added.
Access roads for two switchyards, off State Routes 169 near Shells Bush Road, which involves surveying and layout of the service entrance road, has also begun.
For the surrounding localities, including the county, affected towns and school districts, the beginning of construction is a sign of the revenues they can expect from the project.
All of the affected jurisdictions agreed to payment-in-lieu-of-taxes contracts that guarantee set revenues be paid by the company based on the energy production.
Fairfield Supervisor Richard Souza has said an initial construction payment will allow him to pay off a close to $200,000 bond, taken out to cover missing money related to an investigation into the prior town board.
Without the PILOT revenues, the town residents could have expected their tax rate to double, Souza said.
Construction year payments under the PILOT agreement are due shortly, Copleman said.
The PILOT plan over 20 years will approach 12 million in revenues for the affected taxing jurisdictions.
As for the impact on the landscape, David Schreck said he has become familiar with the turbines. Splitting his time between Fairfield and his home in York, Pa., he said he has driven by farms with hundred of turbines near Wilkes-Barre, Pa.
From his pick-your-own blueberries stand right along the road taken by the trucks bringing supplies to the Fairfield project, David Schreck stood and looked at the horizon that would soon include the wind mills.
“I think they’re pretty,” he said. “After a while you don’t even see ‘em.”
The wind turbine project:
• A total of 37 wind turbines, each 2-megawatt models that stand over 450-foot tall, including blade height, and affect 43 private parcels.
• 25 turbines in Fairfield and 12 in the town of Norway
• An interconnection facility in the town of Little Falls
• 14 miles of gravel access road
• 20 miles of buried electrical lines
• Two permanent 77-meter tall meteorological towers
• An operations and maintenance facility
The revenue-sharing agreement
• The annual per megawatt payment is $8,000
• The 37 total turbines, each producing 2-megawatts, means $592,000 annually could be split by the towns, school districts and county.
• The plan over 20 years could generate over $11.8 million, with stipulations for inflation or cost of living increases possible.
• A cost of living adjustment was included for the payments, with a floor of 2.5 percent and a ceiling of five percent.
• A $400,000 construction impact payment to be made to the county within 60 days of the start of construction.
State subsidies awarded to the Hardscrabble wind farm project, payable once energy production begins:
• A portion of $96 million awarded in January to five clean-energy projects in New York state.
• A portion of $204 million awarded Friday to eight large-scale electric generating projects to produce and deliver renewable electricity to New York consumers.
Fairfield —
