By Richard Kerns
rkerns@newstribune.info
tribune staff writer

KEYSER — US WindForce officials met Monday night to outline plans for a charitable fund the company plans to launch as part of its 23-turbine Pinnacle wind farm, but the meeting turned to the merits of the project itself, as residents rose to register their opposition.
“I’m totally against putting 23 turbines on Green Mountain, for obvious reasons,” said Keyser resident Mike Wilson.
Wilson said the turbines, which will rise 418 feet above the crest of Green Mountain, just west of Keyser, will detract from the natural experience campers savor at Jennings-Randolph Lake’s award-winning campground, “2 miles by air” from the turbines. In addition, Wilson cited the threat to bald eagles that nest near the lake.
 “They’re within the danger zone of those windmills,” he said.
WindForce officials noted that the company has conducted extensive wildlife studies related to the Pinnacle project, which will run from the Pinnacle radio tower area, north to the end of Green Mountain at the Potomac River. Those studies found no risk to eagles.
“They are unconcerned about (the impact to) bald eagles,” said Dave Friend, vice president of sales and marketing. “To my knowledge, there’s never been a bald eagle killed by a wind turbine.”
Wilson was unpersuaded, saying the wind turbines are a “for or against” issue, and nothing WindForce officials can say
will sway him from opposition. He noted that company officials reported at a recent meeting that no one had expressed opposition to the Pinnacle project.
“Put ‘em where you want, they don’t belong on Green Mountain,” he said. “There is opposition to it.”
WindForce officials noted that the West Virginia Public Service Commission will take nearly a year to review and act on the application for the Pinnacle project, which is to be submitted in early January. As part of the PSC review, WindForce officials said, public hearings will be conducted to allow residents to state their position on the project.
Aside from concerns expressed by Wilson and two other area residents, most of Monday night’s meeting at the Wind Lea Banquet and Conference Center was devoted to the Community Benefit Fund that WindForce plans to establish if the project is approved, and maintain for the life of the wind farm. Company officials said they plan to seed the fund with an initial contribution of $50,000, supplemented by an additional $20,000 each year for the life of the project. In addition to the fund, the company will become the second-largest taxpayer in Mineral County, WindForce officials said, with the project generating about $300,000 a year in property tax revenue.
Dave McNally of US WindForce said local residents will decide how the money will be spent. “We clearly want this to be something the community owns,” he said.
McNally also noted that the company will design the funding so that the annual allocation remains secure, regardless of any future direction WindForce may take. “We want to give the community the assurance that the fund continues in the out years,” he said.
Shannon Cunningham of West Virginia Grant Makers Association – which links granting entities with charitable foundations – said WindForce’s proposed fund is unusual in the way it allows the company to decide how to allocate the money. “I don’t think you understand how unique it is for a company to give a gift, but let the community decide where it goes,” she said. “That’s really unique.”
Much of the discussion at the meeting concerned how the grant funds would be distributed, whether as challenge grants, in a few large grants or many smaller awards, or some mix. Mona Ridder, executive director of the Mineral County Development Authority, noted the possibility of establishing an endowment with the funds, and using the interest to fund local projects in perpetuity.
Cunningham said the best approach is to establish a framework for awarding grants before the fund is set up. “The challenge is to decide before you get into it,” she said.
WindForce officials said discussions about the Community Benefit Fund will continue at next month’s meeting, which is a holiday appreciation dinner limited to members of the Community Advisory Panel that has been meeting on the project since this spring.