At last evening’s meeting, Snyder supervisors tabled the decision to set a date for public comment on the township’s Commercial Wind Turbine Ordinance in order to have more time to fine tune some of the details.
Currently, Gamesa Energy USA is proposing to place wind mills on Tyrone Borough property located on Ice Mountain, which is in Snyder Township.
Supervisor Charlie Diehl said at the meeting that the township is creating the wind turbine ordinance in order to protect the township, but it is the borough’s final decision as to whether or not it decides to allow the wind mills on Ice Mountain.
Gamesa sent the township a letter of nine recommendations dated August 17, 2007. Township solicitor Dave Pertile said he and township engineer Ken Szala have been working on the ordinance and have taken the recommendations into consideration.
Pertile and Szala went over the nine recommended amendments with supervisors last night. Some of the issues had to deal with setback distances from property lines, public roads, electric and utility lines. Some of the recommendations had to do with a bonding issue and other minor ordinance language.
The main issue supervisors discussed last evening was the noise level language in the ordinance.
Gamesa wants the language to be changed to have the noise level decibels of the wind turbines to be measured from a house not a property line.
However, Supervisor Jim Burket said he wasn’t comfortable with that. He wants the noise level decibels to be measured from the property line. He said he wants to protect property owners who have been established in the township who may want to build a house on their property in the future.
At the meeting, Gamesa representative Josh Framel said measuring the noise level from the property line would be an obstacle for Gamesa.
Supervisors advised Szala to research noise level decibels so they can make a more informed decision.
After supervisors work out the details of the wind turbine ordinance, there will be a public comment date advertised in the paper for those residents who wish to discuss it.
Also at last evening’s meeting, supervisors approved:
• the first donation payment to the Bald Eagle Volunteer Fire Company. Payment will be as follows: $6,100 from the Fire Protection Fund and $5,000 from the General Fund;
• a $2,000 donation to the Boy Scouts of America for the construction of a pavilion at Camp Anderson;
• Robert Ayers, Robert Schoch, Charles Dry, Helen Mengle and Richard Baumgardner to serve on the uniform construction code appeals board;
• the advertisement of the Snyder Township Subdivision and Land Development Ordinance and
• the advertisement for bids for the Gurekovich Hollow Sewer Project.
