Judge halts town vote on wind energy deal

A judge has temporarily barred a Steuben County Town Board from voting to settle a lawsuit by a wind power developer after concerns were raised that lame-duck board members wanted to strike a last-minute deal with the company.

The order by state Supreme Court Justice Stephen Lindley, signed Monday, short-circuited a special board meeting Monday night at which a majority of the Prattsburgh Town Board may have been prepared to settle the lawsuit.

The order was sought by two other board members who are not in favor of the wind project as currently proposed.

Ecogen Wind LLC sued Prattsburgh's board members in early November, saying the board had improperly withheld approval of a proposal to locate 16 electricity-generating wind turbines in the town. The lawsuit was filed days after voters in the hilly Steuben County community had ousted the supervisor and a board member who favored the Ecogen plan, choosing instead candidates who were skeptical of the proposal.

Ecogen's legal papers made clear they feared that the incoming board, where skeptics will outnumber project advocates 4-1, would permanently nix the project.

According to papers filed with Lindley this week by board members Steven Kula and Charles Shick, Ecogen worked out a settlement with pro-project forces on the town board and sought to have the agreement approved Monday night.

"I'm afraid this whole thing was an opportunity for the existing Town Board and the wind company to settle this matter before the (newly) elected board was seated," Kula said.

He said the proposed settlement would allow the wind development to go forward on Ecogen's terms, and was "hugely detrimental" to town residents.

Kula and Shick argued that the town was obligated to hire a separate attorney to represent them in the Ecogen suit, and persuaded the judge to block any board vote on the lawsuit until full consideration could be given to that request.

The board is to discuss the separate-lawyer issue at a special meeting next Monday evening, Kula said. Lindley has scheduled a hearing Tuesday morning to consider whether to continue his ban on a Town Board vote.

Ecogen filed a similar legal action against the neighboring town of Italy, Yates County, where the company wants to build 17 turbines. That town's board voted in October to reject the Ecogen project.

Turbines in the two towns would be 415 feet high and could generate up to 76 megawatts of electricity.