Oregon City Schools is moving closer to deciding whether to put up two wind turbines at Clay High School, two at Coy Elementary and two more at Jerusalem Elementary.

Jim Gilmore, City of Oregon commissioner of building and zoning, told The Press one turbine at Clay will be 286 feet in height and one will be 279 feet in height. They will be able to withstand winds in excess of 100 miles per hour.

Dean Sandwisch, director of business affairs for the Oregon City Schools District, said the district will install 100-kilowatt turbines at Coy, much smaller than the two 750-kilowatt turbines Clay will install.

New roof takes root  Mercy St. Charles Hospital showcased its newly installed 12,100 Sq. ft. LiveRoof, the first in the Toledo area. The vegetative roofing which consists of 15 varieties of plants, replaced the traditional shingled roofs in the 4 patient courtyards. The new roof lowers the temperature by 10-15 degrees and will give patients an improved outdoor visual. Picturd are Dan Cartell, LiveRoofCorso's Perennials: Jeffrey Dempsey, VP, Operations Mercy St. Charles Hospital: and Phil Kozar, Manchester Roofing. (Press photo by Ken Grosjean)

“The height of these wind turbines is 157-feet, and they’ll be located 160 feet from each property line,” Gilmore said. “It’ll be of tubular monopole design.”

Sandwisch added, “So these are substantially smaller units. They are roughly half the size in height. They will produce a range between 65-85 percent of the Coy Elementary School’s electrical use.”

Sandwisch expects a vote by the Oregon school board on June 23 to approve a contract with SURE Energy.

“At that point, we will have all the legal documentation available. So, what we had done before, in December, the board had OK’d in principal, and we were always going to bring back all the agreements, and that is the point where we are at now.

“Assuming we have all the documentation, the vote will happen on the 23rd,” Sandwisch continued.

Wednesday morning, a special meeting was held to update board members on the progress of the documentation.

“It was just kind of dotting I’s and crossing T’s. That’s all it is,” Sandwisch said. “We had some folks in the community that are concerned about it and we wanted to take our time and make sure we have done everything correctly and I think we have done that.”

Participants at the board presentation included John Fellhauer, chief of manufacturing, SUREnergy; Bryan Rathbun, assistant director of sales, SUREnergy; Beth Amburgy, CFO, SUREnergy; and Maria Armstrong, attorney, Bricker & Eckler LLP.

The presenters said the district would see an energy cost savings if the turbines were installed plus state law requires utility companies to purchase energy not used by the district.

“When we go up to the plate here, we have to not only go halfway; we have to hit one out of the park,” Sandwisch said. “Our demand change will never be zero. There will be times when the wind won’t want to blow and the turbines won’t be turning, but we will have demand from Toledo Edison.”

Jim Austermiller, a CPA who worked 26 years in the public sector including 13 years with the state auditor’s office, claimed in an e-mail to The Press that the special meeting violated Ohio’s Sunshine Law. Austermiller is a member of Oregon Residents for Effective and Efficient Schools, a citizens committee formed shortly before last November’s election.

Sandwisch said the district’s legal counsel stands behind the meeting. Sandwisch said the district had planned for the vote on whether to approve installing the turbines to take place Wednesday.

“Originally, all the attorneys involved, which we have the port authority, we have the finance company, SURE Energy, thought originally that they were going to have the documents completed by yesterday’s meeting, and that did not or could not happen,” Sandwisch said.

“We’re on a tight time frame because of the issuance of the bonds themselves,” Sandwisch continued. “They are from the port authority, and they need to go through their board and all of the things had to fall in place. It was evident it wasn’t going to get done, and now they’ve found, OK, we can do it a different day, so the 23rd will still be sufficient.

“I think the good thing from my point of view is we’ll know one way or the other — either we are going to be doing it or we are not going to be doing it. That should be decided on the 23rd,” Sandwisch added.

The $7.4 million project also includes the addition of two 100 kilowatt units at Eisenhower Middle School, which is 1¼ miles from Maumee Bay State Park.

The Black Swamp Bird Observatory is seeking a three-year moratorium on additional wind turbines within three miles of the Lake Erie Shores in Lucas, Ottawa, Sandusky, and Erie counties until research, including radar studies, on how the turbines affect the lives of nocturnal migrants can be completed.

Opposition to the turbines was not voiced at the board meeting Wednesday, but the district believes it can partner with the birding organizations for research.

“We reached out through SURE Energy in May because the bird folks always wanted to do some kind of pre-line base studies,” Sandwisch said, adding that the district has had no further contact with birding organizations since.

Sandwisch said the turbines will present opportunities academically for the school district and for area colleges.

“I think the support honestly is going to come from the higher learning institutions,” Sandwisch said. “They are going to have graduate students working with this. I am excited about the educational piece. That’s a no-brainer. That’s the slam dunk on this piece.”

Comments (0)

Subscribe to this comment's feed