March 23rd, 2020 by WCBC Radio
The Allegany County Commissioners have been the target of strong criticism by members of the citizens group opposed to the planned Dan’s Mountain Wind Farm project- and at the most recent public meeting the county officials began to fire back. Darlene Park, president of the group ANCHOR, believes the commissioners have placed the desires of the developer ahead of the concerns of the citizens who could be impacted. She suggests that all three commissioners have been influenced by campaign donations from Dan’s Mountain Wind Force- the company behind the effort to build turbines at the site. That accusation was strongly denied by Commissioner Creade Brodie Jr…
Another claim by Park is that the commissioners replaced members of the Board of Zoning Appeals after the board rejected the project application in 2015. She maintains that the commissioners replaced those board members with individuals with more wind farm friendly attitudes. Park also accused the commissioners of not following state law when it comes to this case. Commissioners President Jake Shade…
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March 23, 2020 at 5:13 am, Ken said:
Does this woman have any proof of these claims? If not, she really needs to either provide proof or back off.
Based on some of her previous claims, proof doesn’t seem to be a component in her arguments.
To be clear, I fully support her right to speak her mind with the understanding that her free speech right is not a free pass giving her speech without consequences.
March 23, 2020 at 8:03 am, mac said:
> Unfortunately this woman doesn’t need to supply any proof to make her outlandish accusations. She is not in a court of law she is ranting in the court of public opinion.
March 24, 2020 at 5:41 pm, Darlene Park said:
> Please read my reply below; your negative comments will NOT stop the accurate information I supply.
March 24, 2020 at 5:41 pm, Darlene Park said:
> Please read my reply below; your negative comments will NOT stop the accurate information I supply.
March 23, 2020 at 9:24 am, Welchy said:
The saddest part is 5% of the public believes her crap, we get it lady you don’t want windmills. Everyone with 2000’ feet of them want them and they bring in much needed tax revenue. Outside of that you can’t even be impacted, yet the people in Bel Air 2 miles away have also been misled by her.
March 24, 2020 at 5:48 pm, Darlene Park said:
> You must be a dear friend of the commissioners and certainly not a home owner with a family.
March 23, 2020 at 10:28 am, LRH said:
I have no dog in the get rich or it all aspect of this. I do how ever believe that windmills have not shown that they benefit anyone on the consumer side in any significant way. So as a tax paying, utility bill paying citizen who has to look at these ugly monsters marring the landscape, I vote no.
March 24, 2020 at 4:55 am, Mark said:
> They provide MUCH CHEAPER power, numbnuts.
March 24, 2020 at 5:50 pm, Darlene Park said:
> Thank You, you are correct.
March 23, 2020 at 10:53 am, BILL said:
I STAND WITH YOU LRH AND I LIVE AT THE BOTTOM OF THE MOUNTAIN!!
March 24, 2020 at 5:42 pm, Darlene Park said:
> Thank you for your support.
March 23, 2020 at 11:14 am, mac said:
I’ll repeat a comment that I made some time ago in regard to the “ugly monster” comment.
No one wants to see the towers and windmills and yet no one seems to even notice the telephone and power poles running along every street. Cables and wires strung from pole to pole and cable boxes and transformers at every corner. Those are unsightly but as they are ubiquitous and have been so for everyone’s lifetime they just aren’t seen.
It’s much worse with the high tension power lines and even unhealthy to be living beneath them.
It’s time for everyone to just realize that they are now living in the 21st century and the windmills are a fact of life in many, many places.
I can’t help but think that Darlene Park would prefer to have a coal truck make deliveries to her house along with the ice truck and the milk man.
March 23, 2020 at 11:43 am, Dave said:
I also do not have a dog in this hunt, however let’s look at some facts. If windmills were cost effective then they wouldn’t need to be subsidized by the government. Windmills are pollution free however they are not an un-interruptible power source. When the system’s demand goes up power has to be provided or the system collapses. Granted the power from wind mills is cleaner and as long as they are used there is less pollution. But they will NEVER replace power plants that can supply power on demand. So unless you are willing to be like 3th world countries with on again off again power we will have to have on demand power sources and solar and wind are not it. You may not like fossil fuel or nuclear but wind is not a viable replacement. If you want a power source that never stops ocean waves are a clean source, but then we get back to power lines across the land which can only be run so from in land. No simple answers but wind and solar are not them or I could be wrong.
March 24, 2020 at 4:58 am, Mark said:
> You are wrong. Power can be stored. It’s how you start your car for example. jeeessh.
March 24, 2020 at 5:45 pm, Darlene Park said:
> You are right. People who went with renewable energy with their electric company, saw their bills double.
March 23, 2020 at 1:57 pm, Ken said:
Dave, No dog in this hunt either but I will defend these things.
Yes, it is intermittent power but energy storage is not only dropping in power but is also allowing our grid to be better managed.
As to your comment about subsidies, they are an incentive. No company wants to get involved in the kind of lunacy we are watching here. Want to build a cell phone tower? That’s a relatively simple process. Do cell towers devalue the property values here in Bel Air? Isn’t there a group of half-baked experts telling anyone who will listen that cell phones cause [insert whatever catastrophe you choose here]?
At what point do we admit that coal is no longer economically feasible? When do we add the cost that air pollution adds to our health care costs – whatever amount that might be?
The future is coming and it will bring its own challenges but it’s up to us to pick fights that are crucial and leave the minor ones alone.
March 23, 2020 at 4:18 pm, Joe wellberg said:
We got no time to deal with Wind Farms.
March 24, 2020 at 7:33 am, Ken said:
> Joe wellberg said:
“We got no time to deal with Wind Farms.”
I don’t know about you but we’ve got plenty of time over here.
March 24, 2020 at 5:31 pm, Darlene Park said:
Before making comments about the 15 & 36 second clips you heard, you should had viewed the March 12, 2020 County Commissioner meeting. These clips demonstrate how Jake and Creade treat people, especially women, when confronted with documented proof the Commissioners did not support the County’s Land Use Codes 360-107 in three court cases: 1. The Commissioners did not participate in the Maryland Court of Special Appeals against the Board of Zoning Appeals; 2. Only partially participate against Dan’s Mt’s PSC application in 2016 for turbines at 580 ft tall. The Commissioners only argued for their preemption to rule the County as they pleased and provided NO testimonies, cross-examines, or arguments to protect the health, safety, and welfare of five communities adjacent to the Project; 3. And, the Commissioners did NOT participating in the 2017 Circuit Court for Baltimore City in support of the PSC denying a Certificate of Public Conveniences and Necessity to Dan’s Mt.
At the end of the tape, Jake Shade admitted they did NOT participate because the County had paid $100,000.00 in attorney fees (proof not provide) and he decided not to spend anymore tax payers’ money on court cases. Over 2,300 residents live adjacent to the proposed Project and their qualities of life and health are at stake. Jake decided the communities/tax-payers on the Dan’s Mountain ridge were not worth defending even though we are part of 52% of the County’s population.
Creade Brodie admitted he is related to a land owner who would have wind turbines on his property; let us open the conversation about conflict of interest and colluding with Dan’s Mt to benefit his relative by NOT following County’s Land Use Codes 360-107 and NOT participating in three court case to protect the five communities adjacent to the proposed project.
Let us open the conversation about who has not been telling the truth and why the Commissioners have not following the oath they took when taking office to “…support the constitution and laws thereof…”; the Commissioners have proven they are more beholden to Dan’s Mt than the residents of Allegany County. I do NOT embellish or lie, I state documented facts! I am fighting to keep my home from becoming unlivable and unsellable; the Harwood Subdivisions has 71 homes and 12 are now for sale, some for many months.
Windmills in Holland are a little over 100 feet tall and were originally used to drain the fields and grind corn by the use of wind. Energy producing structures are wind turbines with generators on top of a 301.5 ft tower with three 278.5 feet blade length that circle around to equal a total height of 580 ft, as in 2016 Dan’s Mt’s application to the PSC. These 580 ft turbines are taller than any structure in MD by 51 ft and were with 3.5 MW generators as compared to the 2.3 generators in Dan’s Mt’s 2015 Project. We do not know the height of the turbines in the PSC application, they could be taller than the 2016 proposed Project, but just imagine these massive turbines’ blades circling around above your home with the capabilities of the unit to circle around 360 degrees in whatever direction the wind blows. The constant noise from the generators & blades that sounds like an air plane hovering above your home, the infra sound will cause sleepless nights and health issues for you and your children, and shadow flickers that also do not stop at the boundary of the property the turbines are constructed on, but travels over 1 ½ to 2 miles from the project. People this is the problem!
We deserve the same quality of live you enjoy! You need to get behind ANCHOR to stop this Project by going to Facebook.com/SaveDansMountain for the mailing address of the PSC and mail your letter this week requesting the PSC to dismiss Dan’s Mountain Wind Force’s application. What the County Commissioners has done to the western part of the County could happen to you next; we do NOT want to live under wind turbines nor do we want you to have to fight a wind turbine project for 12 years like we have. Please support ANCHOR and stop being negative of our efforts to main our quality of life and health.