Cooperstown News Bureau

This is the month construction of Cherry Valley's 43 wind turbines, a $50 million project, was slated to begin.

But they may never be built.

The Cherry Valley Town Planning Board has not approved the project, and the developer, Global Winds Harvest, has submitted no paperwork to the town in months, according to Planning Board Chairman Ed Harvey.

"That project was supposed to be done by the end of the year, and you can see that isn't going to happen," Harvey said.

The project had been eligible for more than $2 million in state funds, money set aside to encourage wind-turbine projects, he noted.

"But it's my understanding that to get those funds they'd have to have the project done by the end of the year," Harvey said.

"And with the state budget the way it is, who knows if those funds will be available in the future," he said.

Erich Bachmeyer of Scotia, project manager with Global Winds Harvest, said Tuesday the project in Cherry Valley is on hold.

Global Winds Harvest is ready to build a 50-tower project in Prattsburg, south of Rochester, and is moving forward with plans to connect to the power grid in North Dakota, he said.

Investors are willing to back the firm's other projects, but some have been leery of investing in Cherry Valley, where a well-funded opposition group has lobbied intensively against the windmills, he said.

"It's a shame," Bachmeyer said, "because it could be a great project. The wind is there."

Another problem Global Winds Harvest has encountered is that its German partner for the Cherry Valley project, P&T Technologies, has decided to pull out of the American market, he said.

Global Winds Harvest is a small firm, with six to seven employees spearheading various projects, Bachmeyer said. The firm does not have the capital to undertake a large project without investor backing.

Last year, when word of the project circulated through northern Otsego County, some property owners were determined to fight it. They formed a non-profit group — Advocates For Cherry Valley — and came out in force with their lawyers, attending town meetings when the project was on the agenda.

This year — even with the project not on the agenda — the advocates still sent a few members to town meetings, but the atmosphere is friendlier, according to Andrew Minnig, the group's vice president.

"We never wanted to be confrontational, but I think that happened from the nature of the issue," he said.

Global Winds Harvest was proposing to build 43 — later decreased to 27 — towers, standing from 235-feet-to-270-feet tall — structures that would dwarf trees and change the look of the landscape, he said.

The advocates are not opposed to wind towers being built anywhere, "but not here where the land has not been degraded," Minnig said.

If the towers were to be placed in an industrial setting, they would not be a blight on the landscape, he said. But in Cherry Valley, with its pristine view and long history, the towers would not be an asset, Minnig said.

An important part of Cherry Valley's future is encouraging second-home construction, and people will not build expensive country homes in the shadow of turbine towers, Minnig said.

The advocates, who meet at the old Cherry Valley School at 1 p.m. on the second and fourth Thursdays of each month, are hoping a bill sponsored by state Sen. James Seward, R-Milford, will seal the project's fate.

According to Seward's counsel, Kristina Baldwin, the bill would allow the commissioner of the state Department of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation to review and possibly kill proposed windmill projects if they adversely affected historic districts.

The law would enable the commissioner to review wind turbine projects if the town in which they're to be built, or an adjacent town, has a district on the state or federal historic registers.

Minnig said the proposed law would be very helpful to the Advocates for Cherry Valley and others concerned about preserving historic landscapes.

Bachmeyer said it could cripple the windmill industry.