Wind money keeps Cohocton above state economic crisis

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By Justin Head
The Evening Tribune
Fri Jan 08, 2010, 12:30 PM EST

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Cohocton, N.Y. -
According to town Supervisor Jack Zigenfus, the Town of Cohocton accepted a $837,500 community host payment from the wind energy developer First Wind Monday.

The funds, the supervisor said, will keep Cohocton stable as the state’s economic crisis worsens.

“It’s really a blessing in disguise for the town’s economy. When we started this project so many years ago we didn’t know this financial disaster would occur and I think we’ve just seen the tip of the iceberg. The real disaster is below the water ... We’re just very fortunate that we have this revenue stream. We are going to be well prepared in the next two to three years to weather this storm,” said Zigenfus Thursday.

First Wind has operated a 50-turbine wind farm on top of Pine, Lent, Dutch and Brown hills in Cohocton since 2008.

In addition to the host payment, — the third Cohocton has received to date — the town will also be provided with $100,000 by April 1 to fix roads damaged by cranes and other equipment, according to Zigenfus.

“Through our due diligence to taxpayers we said we wanted some guarantee they were going to repair the roads they used,” he said, adding the majority of the money will be used to fix Davis Hollow and Dutch Hill roads.

Zigenfus said First Wind paid the town $315,000 and the Village of Cohocton $20,000 for road repairs in 2009 through a negotiated agreement.

According to the supervisor, the amount the Town of Cohocton has raised by taxes has dropped 60 percent in the past two years. Zigenfus said in 2007 residents were paying $4.18 per thousand dollars of assessed property value and now they are paying $2.90 per thousand dollars of assessed property value.

The First Wind payments make up about half of the town’s roughly $1.8 million budget, according to Zigenfus.

The surplus of money has allowed the town to budget $220,000 for the purchase of a new highway department truck and plow and pickup truck, as well as money for improvements to the Lawrence Parks recreation area and development plans for highway department facility improvement.

“There really isn’t as much controversy in the area as one would think. There is not more than a handful of these anti-wind people. When we were up for election we won by huge margins ... if people don’t like the decisions you make they let you know at the polls,” said Zigenfus.