“The blade diameter will be 286 feet wide. That’s like having a football field suspended 256 feet in the air spinning.”
Michael King and Carol Johnson believe that spinning wind turbine could be a health hazard and will drastically change the landscape of Stephenson County for the worst, so they decided to construct a scale model.
“So that we could see and our neighbors could see how big these things are going to be in relation to something everyone in the area recognizes.”
That would be the tallest building in Freeport. The county board will vote on two wind farms on Thursday, one between Freeport and Dakota and another northwest of Lena. But not everyone believes the wind turbines will be an eyesore. Paul Jacobs could have two wind turbines placed on his land.
“I’ve been out to California where they have many hundreds of thousands of wind towers out there, all kinds and sizes, and the wealthy people out there are satisfied.”
Jacobs believes people will get used to, and even enjoy, the new technology as they have in the past.
“Back in the horse and buggy days, people didn't like cars because they thought they would be dangerous, loss of life and all that; it’s negative, but the positives outweigh the negatives.”
Those positives and negatives will be weighed on Thursday November 30.