WIND TURBINE COMING TO WINNEBAGO COUNTY ?? COULD BE STAY TUNED FOR MORE

Town of Menasha wind turbine project advances
Panel OKs permit for pipe structure

Gannett Wisconsin Newspapers
TOWN OF MENASHA — A wind turbine demonstration project generated many questions and concerns Wednesday but still passed its initial hurdle.

The Planning Commission approved a permit, with several conditions, for Kelly Rousseau and Soul Purpose Ministry, Inc., a nonprofit Christian ministry that hopes to install the turbines atop a structure at a former steel company.

Rousseau, of Hortonville, and co-applicant Tom Newton, of Manitowoc, are planning to place 36 wind turbines with 8-foot-diameter blades around the perimeter of a crane bay at 2225 Northern Road.

The small-scale turbines are nothing like the large wind turbines seen elsewhere. The proposed turbines are about the size of a bowling ball and will be mounted on pipes, not towers, not to exceed 120 feet in height. The pipes will be spread 10 feet apart around the outer perimeter of the 9,200-square-foot crane bay. They will be fastened against the steel beams and banded together by guy wires gathered in the center of the structure.

The property is in a heavy industrial zone where many uses are permitted. But Winnebago County requires the permit because of the electricity generation.

"We've got more questions than answers," said Matt Everett, co-owner of Paul Davis Restoration, a business next door. Since Rousseau purchased the property a year ago, Everett said it has been "essentially used as a garbage dump," creating a nuisance with tall weeds and an abandoned and unregistered bus.

Based on that, Everett is concerned with bringing additional "waste and foul odors" to the site from other renewable energy projects.

Rousseau said the project will allow Soul Purpose Ministry "to further develop and bring awareness to technologies that can assist in solving energy needs for the masses" especially the needy.

Besides the wind turbines, the first phase involves a biodiesel generator and a 15-passenger bus with a diesel engine that runs on vegetable oil, said Newton, president of Worship, Thanks Praise of Manitowoc, a partner of Soul Purpose Ministry.

Jim Beasom, who lives at The Park, a 10-story condominium nearby, said he has no problem with the turbines, but is concerned with possible odors coming from other renewable energy projects proposed for the site, including a bio-mass digester/processor to handle sewage treatment plant sludge, a steam co-generation system, a wood chip steam boiler and photovoltaic solar cells.

One of the conditions imposed on the project is a report on how many birds, if any, are killed by the turbines. Menasha also will require that odors are confined to the property, equipment and trash receptacles are screened from view and that all future phases of the project first are approved by the Planning Commission.

The permit now goes to the Town Board Monday night, a public hearing before the Winnebago County Planning and Zoning Committee on Tuesday in Oshkosh and ultimately to the County Board.