Last week, Tyrone Borough officials met with officials from Gamesa Energy USA about the possibility of the company using borough land for testing on Ice Mountain for its wind-energy business.
Tyrone Borough Council discussed the possibility of Gamesa using Ice Mountain during an executive session on May 8. Borough Manager Sharon Dannaway said, “We met with them about the property we own up on Janesville Pike.”
Dannaway said Tyrone was still at the “discovery point” regarding the company using the site located in Snyder Township, but owned by the borough. She said there were a lot of issues including environmental concerns that the borough needed to explore before making decisions. She noted it was the borough’s desire to “keep the watershed pristine.”
Dannaway said the company wants to test a wind turbine on Ice Mountain to see if using the location for permanent structures would be practical. Last week, Snyder Township Supervisor Charlie Diehl told The Daily Herald he knew of no township regulations that would prevent turbines from being erected if Tyrone approved the structures.
Gamesa is a Spanish wind-energy company that chose Pennsylvania for its United States-based operations. Gamesa Energy USA was expected to create more than 1,000 jobs in the state over a five-year period according to a 2004 release from Governor Ed Rendell’s office announcing Gamesa’s decision to locate in the Commonwealth.
Calls to Gamesa’s Philadelphia offices inquiring about the company’s plans in Tyrone were not returned.
