IS HARTSVILLE BANNING WIND?

EON OFFICIALS SAY IT'S A BAN... BUT DOMBERT SAYS IT'S NOT

During Wednesday night's special meeting on the proposed changes to the wind law, John Reynolds, the Eon Project Manager, asked Hartsville's Town Board why they didn't just come out and declare a ban on wind, as opposed to pretending that they were interested in having a wind project.

Eon, the wind company that wants to locate a wind project in Hartsville, and Eon officials maintain that the wind law that Hartsville's working on would, if passed in it's current form, ban wind farms in Hartsville.

During Wednesday night's meeting on the revised wind law (which has not yet passed), Eon Project Manager John Reynolds called the new changes "a ban" on wind energy. "I don't think any reasonable business person would call this a 'non-ban," Reynolds told our news department after the meeting was over. "This is not a way to work with us, this is a way to prevent us from working with them," Reynolds said.

However, according to Hartsville wind attorney Gary Abraham, the wind law does not ban wind in Hartsville. "It doesn't make it impossible to put a wind farm here," Abraham told our reporter Wednesday night. "It's got a certian setback (the distance from the wind turbine from the neighboring residence), which is quite reasonable, 2460 feet...other towns have adopted much lengthier setbacks, and other towns...have banned them. This is not a ban. It doesn't say it's a ban, it doesn't operate as a ban," Abraham said.

There will be another meeting on the proposed wind law changes on November 2nd.