In August 2024, Keating Township supervisors Dave McClain, John Anderson and Ryan Herzog adopted a protective ordinance that attempted to balance property rights with community concerns about Swift Current Energy’s proposed Black Cherry Wind project in McKean County.

Keating’s Ordinance 110 requires any wind turbine to be set back from the nearest occupied building of a non-participating landowner’s property at 20 times the hub height. It must be set back 10 times the turbine height — from the foundation to its tallest point — from the nearest property line and five times the turbine height from the nearest public road.

At that August meeting, Swift representatives Dave D’Onofrio and Bri Erskin said, “(The setbacks outlined in Ordinance 110) would essentially make it unbuildable. That would impact these five or six residents in Keating Township who were interested in being a part of this project.”

To which Anderson said, “What you’re saying about the residents who want windmills is valid, but we also have to weigh the residents that don’t want it near their property. And, honestly, I’ve heard from way more people that are against than for.”

Hamlin Township followed Keating days later in adopting the protective ordinance. Supervisor James Trussell said, “A very large majority of the people (in Hamlin Township) do not want it. Out of 100 people, 99 don’t want it.”

At the June 3 meeting of Norwich Township supervisors, Carolyn Mechanye and others argued that landowners cannot, in fact, “do whatever they want with their property.”

She said, “So my neighbor thinks (windmills are) a good idea, guess what that does to my lifestyle?”

Shannon said, “That’s the tough balance that we’re all trying to solve here —,” but Mechanye interjected, “No! There’s no balance! We don’t want them. The end.”

Shannon said, “Do you disagree that there’s private property rights for landowners?”

Machanye said, “Yeah I’ll put a casino on my property.”

Resident and co-petition organizer Brian Bischoff said the project didn’t just affect those in the room, but multiple future generations.

“This is a 67-year lease with a clause in it that essentially makes it indefinite. That’s multiple generations you’re affecting this land.”

He added that he would like to share Article I, Section 27 of the Pennsylvania Constitution, for the meeting record:

“The people have a right to clean air, pure water, and to the preservation of the natural, scenic, historic and esthetic values of the environment. Pennsylvania’s public natural resources are the common property of all the people, including generations yet to come. As trustee of these resources, the Commonwealth shall conserve and maintain them for the benefit of all the people.”

‘Steamrolled by big corporations’

Bischoff, who was also among the approximately 60 people who attended the Liberty Township public meeting June 4, said, “Nobody in the meeting wanted the turbines, nobody raised their hand at the end of the meeting when they asked who is for it.”

Dustin Zetwick asked Swift representatives whether they were taking into consideration that McKean County is part of the valuable Pennsylvania Wilds region.

“Because aesthetics are affected by looking at windmills,” Zetwick stated. “It’s why so many people in this county are against this. We are here, we live here because this is what we like to see. We like the wild, we like to be left alone. It just seems that we’re constantly getting steamrolled by big corporations that, in the end, don’t care.”

They pointed out that large swaths of land in McKean County are owned by corporations, whose decision-makers don’t live here and, thus, wouldn’t be affected by the installation of 500- to 650-foot tall windmills.

Jim Hourdequin, CEO of New Hampshire-based Lyme Timber Co., said, “We acknowledge that these are challenging issues for communities and landowners to sort out. Our primary business is growing trees. We are not wind developers, but of course we have to think about the different legal opportunities we can pursue on our timberlands, especially if they can be pursued alongside our primary goal of growing and managing trees for the future. No matter what, we seek to comply with laws, zoning ordinances, state regulations and any other requirements imposed on all landowners. And we respect the rights of others to voice their opinions and propose laws and regulations that serve community needs.”

Hourdequin pointed out that Lyme Timber’s local affiliate is Three Rivers Forest Management in Coudersport, but he was unsure how many of its approximately 250 regional employees actually reside in the project area.

Swift officials said they are, in fact, considering the area’s rural appeal. For example, the company is committed to using an aircraft-detection lighting system (ALDS) to keep the area’s dark skies dark, “because it does matter and we can appreciate that,” Bri Erskine said. She added that personnel who would work on and maintain the turbines must live within 30 minutes of the project center.

Democracy at work

Liberty Township supervisors held a public meeting June 4 at Veterans Memorial Inc. (VMI) in Port Allegany in order to hear from residents and Swift Current Energy representatives.

Supervisors wanted to gather comments and feedback prior to voting on whether to keep the restrictive ordinance the township adopted last August, or accept the revisions since proposed by Swift.

Liberty Township officials, on its Facebook page, said “The reason the supervisors had the meeting was to see how the township residents felt about it before the supervisors vote on it — and now they know.”

Supervisors set a meeting for 8:30 a.m. Thursday to take their official action on Ordinance No. 1-24. Later that day, the minutes were posted to the township’s Facebook page.

“The decision to keep the old ordinance in place was presented and unanimously accepted on a motion by Chairman (Dick) Brown and a second by Supervisor (Chad) Moses. Chairman Brown said that the supervisors had pretty much made up their mind after the public meeting on June 4, 2025, after listening to the people’s objections and then having (Swift Current) representatives Joe (Shannon) and Dave (D’Onofrio) suggest to him (Joe and Dave both [made the suggestion to Brown]) and Supervisor Moses (Joe [made the suggestion to Moses]) that they could break our ordinance.”

Asked by The Era what was meant by breaking the townships’ ordinance, Shannon said, “The team has expressed concerns about the current ordinances passed in the area as they relate to the requirements of the PA Municipalities Planning Code (MPC). In the vein of open dialogue with local leaders, we have continued to highlight the long-established Pennsylvania land use principle that a municipality is not permitted to totally exclude a legitimate land use from its boundaries. We are fully committed to working in good faith towards a solution and working with the community as we have over the last 15 months.”

Another unidentified resident at the Norwich meeting said to Swift officials there, “We’ve been here for generations, a lot of us. We’re asking you to leave our land alone. It’s our land, we’ve lived here all these years, we’re used to the peace, the quiet, the birds — we don’t want to listen to windmills.”

(Editor’s note: Please see a related editorial on page A-6 of Saturday’s edition.)