October 15, 2015
HARTSVILLE, NY – Hartsville Supervisor Mike Muhleisan says wind company Everpower won’t talk with him, and that from other sources (news outlets like WLEA, as well as the Steuben County IDA) that Everpower keeps changing the terms of the wind project. Muhliesan says he finds out what Everpower talks about in Hornellsville, through media accounts.
VIDEO: Town Supervisor Talks About Everpower
After the Hartsville meeting ended, WLEA attempted to reach Everpower official Kevin Sheen by email, but were not successful. We can report though that wind farmers have stated at many Hartsville meetings that a wind project would bring much more money to the town. As soon as we hear from Kevin Sheen, we will post his statement online and read it on the radio.
According to what Muhleisan said at the Wednesday night meeting, if the wind project does happen in Hartsville, the payment in lieu of taxes will be split so many ways (Canisteo-Greenwood Central, Alfred-Almond Central and Steuben County government,) that Hartsville Town Hall only gets $1,000 a megawatt. Muhliesan says that turns into probably only be $50,000 a year or less, depending on the megawatts of the project. The supervisor claims that amount of money is nowhere near what has been spoken about to Hartsville residents, who the supervisor says have been told that there be enough revenue to buy new road equipment and paying for fire department service, things which some have argued that a wind project would pay for.
In other Hartsville news, the supervisor says that the contract for fire department service that the Canisteo Village Hall sent to Hartsville is a huge increase every year. $35,000 for the year 2016, $42,500 for 2017, and $50,000 for 2018. Supervisor Muhleisan says he believes that the fire contracts are going up, because of the new fire truck that Canisteo is buying.
VIDEO: SUpervisor Talks About Canisteo’s Fire Department Contract Cost Increase
We spoke with Canisteo Village Mayor Bill Tucker, who says that Canisteo provides services for Howard, Hartsville, all of the town and all of the Village of Canisteo. Tucker also stated that the new Canisteo fire truck will cost $375,000, and the truck drove the price up for both Hartsville and Canisteo.
