Windrock Windmills run into problems... FYI

RedForeman ┊

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Jul 14, 2004, 1:56:54 PM7/14/04

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http://www.knoxnews.com/kns/local_news/article/0,1406,KNS_347_3035011,00.html

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RedForeman ┊

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Jul 14, 2004, 3:31:00 PM7/14/04

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|| On Wed, 14 Jul 2004 13:56:54 -0400, "RedForeman ĐŪ"
|||
http://www.knoxnews.com/kns/local_news/article/0,1406,KNS_347_3035011,00.html
||
|| Can't read the article without registering.. If I may quote a little
|| Bush, Sr. "...not gonna do it.." :)

Uh-oh... I'll paste some....
==============================================
Windmill project runs into ill wind

<image> http://mas.scripps.com/KNS/2004/07/13/0714wind2e_e.jpg
By BOB FOWLER, fow...@knews.com
July 14, 2004

OLIVER SPRINGS - Plans to haul tons of windmill parts up Buffalo Mountain
for a new wind farm have hit an 11th-hour snag with a defiant Oliver Springs
mayor vowing that his city streets won't be torn up in the process.

"You're not going to pull that crap down my streets unless some judge tells
me,'' Mayor Ed Kelley told representatives of three companies involved in
the project to erect a 15-turbine wind farm atop the nearby 3,300-foot-tall
mountain.

Kelley met Tuesday in Oliver Springs City Hall with officials from the
companies.

Plans now call for windmill parts to be hauled from Oak Ridge through Oliver
Springs and then up Buffalo Mountain.

Kelley expressed concern that there would be both immediate harm as well as
"latent'' damages to city streets that would only emerge later. City
streets, he said, weren't built to handle such heavy loads.

Kelley said required city permits for Barnhart Crane & Rigging to use Oliver
Springs' streets wouldn't be issued unless "you can prove to my engineer
that everything's cool.''

Kelley was particularly adamant that the town's Midway Drive not be used for
hauling windmill equipment. Barnhart Rigging & Crane officials said their
current game plan doesn't include an alternate route.

"It is not our intention to come bootlegging through here and leave a path
of destruction in our wake,'' Barnhart Rigging and Crane President Alan
Barnhart told Kelley.

Kelley said a meeting between Barnhart Rigging and Crane officials and the
city's engineer, Robert Colvin of GRW Elrod Dunson Inc. of Knoxville, would
be arranged.

Colvin in a July 1 letter to Barnhart Rigging and Crane Vice President Brian
Thomas recommended that his firm pay Oliver Springs $100,000 up front to
cover expected damages to the city's streets, sewers and water lines. Colvin
in the letter also suggested the firm post a $250,000 bond to cover "unknown
future costs.''

The town's stance left officials with Barnhart Crane & Rigging Co., who want
to begin moving wind turbine parts through Oliver Springs on July 26,
uncertain how to proceed.

"We've never run across this before,'' Thomas said after the brief meeting
with Kelley.

Thomas told Kelley his firm has hauled more than 3,000 similar-sized loads
and has yet to have a claim filed against it.

Some of the loads include 95,000-pound windmill bases, but Thomas said the
trailers used to haul them are specially designed "to lessen the impact.''

Kelley said there is an 11-ton limit on Windrock Road, the other city street
that would be used to haul windmill parts.

"I'm really, really perturbed that nobody came down to talk to us,'' Kelley
told the companies' officials Tuesday.

The mayor fired off a June 18 letter to TVA over the issue in which he said
he was "appalled'' that city officials weren't contacted before "illegal
loads'' were hauled over Windrock Road. Concrete trucks needed to build the
windmill bases have already been going through town.

TVA has contracted to buy electricity made by the windmills from Invenergy
LLC, and that Chicago-based company has hired Barnhart Rigging and Crane to
get its windmill parts to the site.

Andy Mullins

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Jul 14, 2004, 9:41:55 PM7/14/04

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Sounds to me like somebody is trying to get their pocket padded. They let
them start pouring the bases then cut them off. Thats how politics works I
guess.

"RedForeman ĐŪ" <n...@thisaddress.com> wrote in message
news:10fb2hl...@corp.supernews.com...

RedForeman ┊

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Jul 15, 2004, 9:51:39 AM7/15/04

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|| Sounds to me like somebody is trying to get their pocket padded.
|| They let them start pouring the bases then cut them off. Thats how
|| politics works I guess.

Yep... in the little town of OliverSprings, that's EXACTLY what Kelley is
doing... he's the most corrupt MerFer up there... but he DOES have 1
point.. OS is the smallest little hich town in TN... it's gof 4 streets, 1
of which is main street, then First Ave, Second Ave. then Windrock Road...

that's sad...

Mike

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Jul 15, 2004, 10:21:20 AM7/15/04

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Anyone out there driven both a jeep wrangler and a side X side such as
the Yamaha Rhino 660?

I realize they are very different vehicles but was wondering how they
would compare when the going gets rough. Noticed the Yamaha has 12
inches of clearance versus 8.5 for a Rangler.

I'm looking for something to use not necessarily off-road but on jeep
trails in the northern CA Sierra Mountains.

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