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August 29, 2007

Wind towers boost economy

Construction of turbines injects bustle of enthusiasm

By SUZANNE MOORE

CLINTON -- To passersby, the rolling landscape of the forested Adirondack foothills reveals but brief glimpses of the first six fully assembled wind turbines here; even so, their impact is visible all over the towns of Clinton and Ellenburg.

ECONOMIC BOOST

Noble Environmental Power has about 270 workers on the job daily, readying its 121 turbine sites and erecting the 265-foot-tall towers in its Clinton and Ellenburg wind parks, working on the substation at the far end of Ryan Road.

Jobs are contracted out for everything from materials handling to foundation work to underground- and overhead-collection-line installation.

"Hundreds of local trucks have been hauling materials," said Dick Decosse, owner of Dick's Country Store & Music Oasis, situated at the Ryan Road/Route 11 intersection.

His establishment has felt the local economic boost, too.

"Our lunch business has increased a lot," Decosse said. "We've increased our gas and fuel-oil business.

"It's been a little hectic at times, but we've adjusted to it."

Posted on bulletin boards at Dick's and other local stores is Noble's work schedule -- this week includes Ryan and County Line roads in Clinton and Harrigan, Sancomb and Tacey roads in Ellenburg.

Shawn Clark of Hannawah in St. Lawrence County advertised his need for housing with a flyer at Dick's.

"I found a place, but it took a while," he told the Press-Republican on Tuesday. "There are so many workers."

The 19-year-old electrician's apprentice jumped at the opportunity to work on the project for Colton firm S&L Electric; he expects his present job to run through December. Now in training, he'll be working at the very top of the turbines.

Does he have a fear of heights?

"Not that I know of," he chuckled. "But we'll see."

PARK ON HORIZON

LaBarre's Market on Route 11 in Ellenburg Corners is a bit removed from the construction, but owner Greg LaBarre says his store is busier nonetheless.

"Probably not as much as we thought," he said.

But the truckers serving the project are paid by the load, and LaBarre guesses that discourages them from taking time out for meals at the store. Once they do, though, they tend to be repeat customers, he said. And with Marble River Wind Farm yet to get rolling with a proposed 21 turbines in Ellenburg and 88 in Clinton, business can only get better, the storekeeper said.

"We might get a lot of their guys."

The wind projects, he added, "are a good thing all around."

"They have brought a life, probably, to the town of Clinton," said Virginia Brown McCauley, sitting in the kitchen of her Ryan Road farmhouse. "A positive life."

Underscoring her words was the faint, rhythmic beeping of construction equipment in the fields behind the house, where turbines rise skyward. The work has brought more traffic to Ryan Road, the woman said, but she doesn't mind.

"We were laughing (about it)," said McCauley, whose primary home is in Duchess County. "It's like a boulevard here now.

Before, she added, "it was almost too quiet."

POSITIVE EXPERIENCE

McCauley granted easements to Noble for the turbines on her land, and that, she said, has proved a good experience.

"They do communicate with the landowner. I actually had a say (within limits) as to where the towers would go."

Evidence of positive relations with Noble shows up and down Ryan Road. Bumper stickers touting the firm abound. Residents answer the door in Noble T-shirts and ball caps.

A green and white windsock with the Noble insignia hangs from Shirley and William Cole's porch railing, and a gleaming white behemoth is growing on their land in back.

"We were the first on the list," Mrs. Cole said.

Payments for their easement have proved a boon financially, she said. And while there has been some construction-related racket, Mrs. Cole, said, laughing, "It don't bother us. We have grandkids that are noisy anyway, so what's the difference?"

A rumble of diesel engine sent her to the window.

"Look, the wings," she nodded at a flatbed carrying turbine blades past her home.

ROADSIDE ATTRACTION

Mrs. Cole enjoys her ringside seat to the construction; others seek it out.

"We go for a ride up there every day," said Laura Nichols, who lives on Bombard Road in Ellenburg.

She's not a landowner involved with the project nor is any work under way near her home. But in the stark and graceful lines of the wind towers she sees promise of better times for her community.

"I think it will do some good up here," she said.

Evenings, Decosse watches sightseers in their slow-moving cars, gawking at the towers.

People, he said, "are very curious to see how things are going.

"I think they look good," he added.

"I'm just awed by the wind turbines," said Ellenburg resident Mark Rowe, sporting a Noble cap.

He's granted the company an easement on land he owns in Clinton, but he doesn't know if a turbine will ever be built on it. Regardless, he said, "it's just exciting.

"And it's good for the taxes."

OBSTRUCT VIEW

From the top of Sancomb Road in Ellenburg, the Ryan Road turbines emerge as tiny white spears from a vista of rolling woodland, with the St. Lawrence Valley beyond.

Only foundation work for the towers off Sancomb are installed so far, but one is scheduled to rise near the Route 190 intersection.

Mowing the lawn at the home on that corner, Chad LaBombard paused to consider his views on the turbines. The Chazy Lake man drives by Ryan Road on his way to work and finds they're "a real obstruction of the view."

He'd be more in favor of the project if it were to provide power locally rather than feed into the National Grid, but he's not actively opposed to it either.

"It's gonna happen anyways," he shrugged.

WINDS OF CHANGE

Hard-line objection to the wind turbines died down with court dismissal of lawsuits over the town's wind-energy laws, but locals know there are those who remain staunchly opposed to the projects, that the sight of the turbines themselves raises a simmering anger.

"They have the right to their own opinion," Rowe offered.

McCauley remembers, as a little girl, hearing her father and grandfather talk about community apprehension over the construction of Route 11, which some thought, she said, "would send a thunder of noise into this quiet, rural area.

"I think that, with change, all of us have a little fear," McCauley said.

But, as with the introduction of hard-topped Route 11, there's always a bigger picture, she said.

The wind farm "is a positive thing globally, too.

"And we need to look there."

smoore@pressrepublican.com

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