Day two of hearings at the Christian County Zoning Board of Appeals went a lot smoother than the previous night. In his opening remarks, ZBA board member Steve Sipes said that there were better controls in place this board meeting for muting people. He also announced that there were at least 63 people who wanted to speak, and with Christian County and Illinois moving into phase 4, he was hopeful that there would be able to be a public hearing in the near future that would be in person. 

Testimony continued as Protect Christian County called Jerry Punch to testify.  Punch, a Northwestern graduate who studied Audiology, says that noise levels from wind turbines can vary quite a bit.

Punch says that setbacks need to be a mile in a half back.

Attorney for Protect Christian County, Phil Leutkehans spoke about the reason for putting forth the amendments the group has. Leutkehans says no one should have to live with shadow flicker.

Leutkehans continued saying there are not a lot of experts in this field, and he wants people to make up their own minds about the wind turbines.

While Leutkehans says there hasn’t been an issue with decommissioning wind turbines here in Illinois it has happened in other states and according to him is a nightmare to towns when that happens.

Another witness, Larry W. Allen, an ornithologist, spoke about the impact wind turbines would have on birds echoing the statements made by Beth Wilhite from the night before. 

The meeting concluded with both lawyers; Phil Leutkehans and the Jim Griffiths, the attorney for Rose City Wind Energy argued about rebuttal times. In the end, the Zoning Board of Appeals granted Rose City an increase from 30 minutes to 45 minutes for their rebuttals. 

The next Zoning Board of Appeals meeting is set for June 30th at 7 PM.