Interesting. I have letters in hand from Noble offering the same thing to residents in Altona and Perry. Bribes, basically. Please ignore the turbines if we pay you to do so.

I was once a proponent of the property value assurance plan - a government-mandated ordinance that required the wind owner to purchase a property that had been up for sale for over a certain period of time if it was within the viewshed. Basically, if the home is unsalable due to the turbines, the company must buy it to assure the family they can have the means to move elsewhere.

Now, I'm not so sure. What happens if the developer buys most of the property around and between the turbines? The town will be left with one major landowner to deal with and far fewer residents. Not to mention more turbines since the houses can be razed to allow it. Centuries-old communities could be transformed into empty land with spinning blades. Why on earth are we simply putting them where the land is already empty?

Developers will never own the property they have the turbines on --- too much liability. "Renting" aka Leasing is the key for them. They have no capital assets just the leases. This also is the trick to avoiding future taxation.
And finally, it's my contention that this is the key to their avoiding decomissioning the turbines: when they go out of business they have no real property except the turbines and simply offer their salvage value to the courts.

Also if they owned the property, they would then be liable for any of the enivronmental damages (watershed) from the concrete etc. As stands now, it's the property owner who grants the permission to do this work on the property owner's land. The liability to the landowner is so substantial, it's hard to imagine anyone doing this for a few thousand bucks a year.

Formosa

Attorney Graham needs to tell people aboput the Harrisburg Town Supervisor, a town he also represents....they were promised a significant amount of gravel by the developer...the developer did not even own the gravel, hence, Harrisburg never received the gravel....Attorney Graham also needs to tell people about all of the landowners complaining that have neighbor agreements...they were deceived. They are complaining. How do wind developers make people sign agreements for $500 a year for each turbine within 1000 feet to SHUT UP and not complain. I don't think a legal contract can make you sign away your Constitutional rights. Look at all of the town officials, Town Board in Lowville, Planning board in Harrisburg, that have a financial interest in the project. None of the stepped down until last fall when I attended a meeting and questioned their input. It was incredible. I addressed my comments to the Attorney. Sorry, but Martinsburg residents are starting to speak up and I will do everything I can to help them. Oh....I almost forgot...55 of the towers were not added to the Empire Zone...NOW, according to the PILOT agreement they will only receive 8 thousand something per year for each of those turbines instead of 40 something thousand. Amazing the way Attorney Graham forgot some of the minor details.