Stark Town Meeting To Be Held at School

Two Turbines Proposed for Towns of Stark, Springfield

VAN HORNESVILLE—The regular monthly meeting of the Town of Stark Board scheduled for Tuesday, December 12 will not be held at the usual location in the Justice Court Building. To accommodate more attendees, it will instead take place in the Owen D. Young Central School auditorium. The meeting will still begin at 7 p.m.

Attendance for this meeting is expected to be high due to the Town of Stark Town Board’s acceptance of a draft Environmental Impact Statement for the New Leaf Stark 1 and Stark 2 Wind Farm. According to the town’s website, the proposal involves the installation of two wind turbines with associated electrical equipment, expected to generate up to 5 MW of electricity each (10 MW total). The turbines will have a hub height of 394 feet and an overall height of 650 feet.

The proposed Community Distributed Generation project turbines would be located at 489 Sickler Road in the Town of Stark, Herkimer County and at 741 County Road 29 in the Town of Springfield, Otsego County.

Hard copies of the wind project DEIS are available for review at the offices of the Town Clerk of Stark and of the Town Clerk of Warren. Copies are also at the Jordanville Public Library and the Springfield Community Center. The applicant, New Leaf Energy, has posted the documents on its website as well, https://www.newleafenergy.com/project/stark-wind.

Following a public hearing on November 14, also held at Owen D. Young Central School, public comments on the project were received by the Town of Stark through November 30.

On its website, New Leaf Energy describes the project as a “small-scale community wind project [consisting] of 2 wind turbines which will be thoughtfully sited on approximately eight acres on land in Stark, NY. The landowners are happily leasing this small portion of their property in exchange for a stable 25+ year income with little impact on their current land use.”

If the project is approved, New Leaf Energy estimates construction will begin in fall of 2024.