LANDOWNER BILL BURKE ’S SPEECH FOR
THE MAPLE RIDGE WIND FARM DEDICATION
September 26, 2006
Bill Moore drove up our driveway just like he did everyone else’s driveway seven years ago and asked, “What do you think?”
Dealing with the winds of route 177 all my life and
having a rough day on the farm, we got into my pickup and drove from field to field visualizing where turbines could be located. Now, here we are seven years later at the Ribbon Cutting of the largest wind plant east of the Mississippi.
This has been no easy task … For the first week Bill sat at Gary’s Restaurant and it seems Chris Monnat, everyone’s favorite waitress, was the first person Bill got to know and ask questions of about our area. Maybe without Chris this wouldn’t have happened.
Scott McDonald and Patrick Doyle (from Horizon Wind Energy) soon joined Bill on the local scene and the development team was taking shape. One evening they even mowed away three loads of hay in our heifer barn! I let them off easy and left three loads on the wagons that night. They thought they should stick to development, although Bill did admire the timbers in the old Clark barn.
As the project grew to almost twice its original size, there was more paperwork and deadlines. They added Bob Burke, Dan Murdie and Dave Beyer and finally, needing someone to keep the group headed in a positive direction, they put Jenny Briot in charge …. And here we are!
Over the past two years of construction, I can’t begin to describe the whirlwind of activity from May to December…From 6:00 a.m. every morning until 6:00 p.m. at night, a caravan of trucks with stone, cement and supplies of every kind passed by.
The people I met, dealt with and talked with over the past two years, I will always remember. I’m going to mention Larry Mills. Construction-wise, this was Larry’s project as the wind ‘park’ was basically constructed last year. Larry was the one that got the ball rolling… established the lay down area, organized the contractors and dealt with us landowners who thought these things should just fall out of the sky and stab into the ground without disturbing anything around them. At this time last year, 70 turbines had been built and they still had 50 turbines to put up before winter set in. Some days Larry would send me to town by noon for a box of nails because he had already eaten through the first one!
The new big guy this year is John Huston. This fellow likes to talk about his home in Missouri, his hobby of raising mules and his interest in wrestling anyone for anything he has in his pocket.
Then you’ve got people like Nancy and David Bublitz of Blattner & Sons. Blattner is pretty much the head of all the contractors and, as far as I can see, David is in charge of that aspect. David had a solution for my constant vigilance and advice; he gave me my own desk (facing the wall), a live phone and a title – Vice President of Public Relations. I asked David what he’d like me to say today and he said he wanted me to mention that this was both a union and nonunion job and that everyone got along and worked together great.
Then you’ve got Mike Delaney of Delaney Construction. They were in charge of all the roads, tearing things apart and putting them back together. One afternoon when I was in Mike’s office he kept referring to the Swenerikki Road and finally I said, “Stop, it’s called the Swernick Road, Mike, the Swernick Road. Mike looked at me with this puzzled look and said why did I let him call it the Swenerikki Road for two years and I said, “You darn fool; you had me looking for some road I’d never heard of for two years!”
Then there’s Dennis Barron and Northland Associates. They’re the ones that did all the concrete. I didn’t get to know Dennis quite as well, but I did get to know one of his foremen, T. J. Moore. T. J. was a rough tough farm boy who enjoyed the hard work and challenge of trying to pour two bases per day. The first time I met T. J. was right here at this very turbine. My wife, Patty, Shawn Freeman, our nephew, and I came to watch the pour. T. J. was jumping from truck to truck and running around the perimeter of the base shouting orders. Then he spied an orange peel in the hole. He immediately ordered a worker to pick the orange peel up. The worker said it wasn’t his. T. J. said if you want to work here, you’ll pick it up along with anything else that doesn’t belong here!
To me, this exemplifies how this whole project has gone. Barnhart’s crane people …. Lone Star Trucking brought in all the blades and turbine parts ….
Everyone we have met has treated us with respect. They’ve treated our land with respect. They’ve taken pride in their work and have, on more than one occasion, gone more than the extra mile, for the sake of this project.
In parting, I would like to give my perspective on where we are as landowners, and as a community. As each generation comes and goes, we all aspire to leave the next generation something to work with. My family and I are the fifth generation – Becky and Bob, our children, being the 6th and Brett and Megan, our grandchildren, being the 7th.
Two years ago we had a fire in our garage. It involved a 14 year old German shepherd, a heat lamp and an electric blanket. Don’t ask! While we waited for the firemen to arrive, we started carrying things out of the house. I was so mad at myself. Five generations in this house and I’m the one who’s going to drop the ball. That’s all I could think of!
No generation wants to be known as the one that dropped the ball. This wind project represents one of the largest investments (almost 400 million dollars) that has ever been made in this area. We, as a community, haven’t had to invest one dollar, yet we stand to receive 2 million a year in land leases and 8 million a year in pilot payments to our schools, townships and county. There will be 20 to 30 good paying jobs for our young people.
We, as community leaders who sit on the various boards of our schools, townships and county offices, have the responsibility of stewardship of these revenues. It is our responsibility to leave our young people with the tools they need to carry our community further into the 21st century.
Our generation has the ball; let’s not drop it! |
