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The Logan County Commissioners have officially received EverPower’s request for a payment in lieu of taxes to build wind turbines and are planning a public meeting for mid-May.
The meeting has been set for 4 p.m. Tuesday, May 17, at the Holland Theatre. Individuals for and against the proposal will be allowed to speak, but the meeting, which is not required by law, will not be conducted in the format of an official public hearing, commissioners said.
There will be no time limit on speakers’ comments, they said.
“The purpose of this public meeting will be to listen and receive input from proponents and opponents of the proposed project,” commissioners wrote in a news release. “The Commissioners will not be addressing the audience or voting on the application at this public meeting.”
EverPower, a Pittsburgh-based wind development company that filed the PILOT request under the corporation name Hardin Wind, wants to build 18 wind turbines in Richland and Rushcreek as part of the larger Scioto Ridge Wind project that includes 87 additional turbines in southern Hardin County.
The PILOT would allow the wind company to make direct annual payments to Logan County instead of paying taxes directly to the Ohio Department of Taxation in a complicated format laid out for public utility companies. However, EverPower representatives said at a recent meeting last week that they will not build the 18 turbines in Logan County if the commissioners deny the request.
The commissioners already have requested a 30-day extension to determine their course of action, which gives them until June 21 to make a decision.
The PILOT request document sent by the Ohio Development Services Agency to the commissioners (available in its entirety here) lists nine taxing authorities in Logan County that would be affected by the request, but it does not state how the money would be divided among them or how much money would be available.
Read complete story in Friday’s Examiner.
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