Battling the wind

In a previous letter to the editor, I explained how sPower had used misrepresentation to get me to sign a "good neighbor agreement" for the Seneca Wind project. After finding out I had indeed been lied to, I contacted the company and requested that my agreement be rescinded. I was told that because there was no written record of misrepresentation, they consider the agreement to be binding and will keep it in force. Now they are using that agreement to place a 650-foot-tall wind turbine very close to my property. When the agreement was signed, I was told I would receive $1,000 on the anniversary date of the signing. The anniversary date came, but the money did not. Seven months later and after threats of legal action by me, they finally sent a check. This is the kind of company that Shayne Thomas and Holly Stacy think is a wonderful addition to our community. What could possibly go wrong by enticing a company that lies and does not pay its bills until threatened to come to our county and establish a major presence here? A presence enabled only by its "promises" to make payments to the county. A presence that will surround Seneca East school with giant turbines at a very close distance. A presence that, by their own admission, puts that school and the children attending it in an area that the World Health Organization says will have noise levels that are associated with negative health effects. These are not unsubstantiated claims. The information is on the Ohio Power Siting Board and World Health Organization websites. These projects, and sPower in particular, do not belong in this county. They have proven that they will operate on misrepresentation and yet they ask us to trust them that all will be just fine. I, along with the majority of citizens in the county, will stand against them and do my best to spread the word on how they cannot be trusted. I thank all the kind folks in the area who have been working very hard to bring the facts to light that the wind companies have tried their best to hide. I have donated the $1,000 that I received from sPower to help in the effort of protecting our county from what is truly an invasion by companies that would lie to us, exploit our area, damage our quality of life, and believe us to be stupid enough to go along with their self-enrichment scheme. I have many uses for $1,000, but there is no better use than to spend sPower's own money to fight back against them. And, as little as I think of this company and its tactics, there are many other people in this county who they have treated even worse. This county has become a battle zone and there are casualties everywhere from neighbor against neighbor, friend against friend, and even family against family skirmishes. I place no fault on the heads of any county residents for this, except for the two county commissioners who have helped to enable it. The fault is theirs and the wind companies for attempting to build an industrial wind project in an area that is over twice as heavily populated as most areas where these kind of projects are built. This battle will never end until the wind companies admit their mistake and move their projects to a less populated part of the country. That is the day that peace will begin to return to Seneca County. Jim Hoffert, Bloom Township