Wed, Dec 03 2008
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Published August 26, 2008 09:04 am - “Listen,” John Yancey says, leaning against his truck in a field outside his home. The rhythmic whoosh, whoosh, whoosh of wind turbines echoes through the air. Sleek and white, their long blades rotate in formation. Wind turbines split towns, families The Associated Press
LOWVILLE, N.Y. — “Listen,” John Yancey says, leaning against his truck in a field outside his home. The rhythmic whoosh, whoosh, whoosh of wind turbines echoes through the air. Sleek and white, their long blades rotate in formation. Yancey stares at them, his face contorted in anger. He knows the futuristic towers are pumping clean electricity into the grid, knows they have been largely embraced by his community. But Yancey hates them. He hates the sight and he hates the sound. He says they disrupt his sleep and invade his house, his consciousness. But what this 48-year-old farmer’s son hates most about the windmills is that his father, who owns much of the property, signed a deal with the wind company to allow seven turbines on Yancey land. “I was sold out by my own father,” he sputters. Yancey lives in a pine-studded home on Yancey Road. The house is perched on the edge of the Tug Hill plateau, half a mile from the old white farmhouse in which Yancey and his seven siblings were raised. Signs for fresh raspberries are propped against a fence. Horses graze in a lower field. Amish buggies clatter down a nearby road. From the back porch are sweeping views of the distant Adirondacks. But the view changed dramatically in 2006. Now Yancey Road is surrounded by windmills. Yancey and some of his brothers begged their father, Ed, to leave the family land untouched. But the elder Yancey pointed to the money — a minimum of $6,600 a year for every turbine. This is your legacy, he told them. Yancey doesn’t want the money or the legacy or the view. “I just want to be able to get a good night’s sleep and to live in my home without these monstrosities hovering over me,” he says. For a long time, he didn’t speak to his father. The rift took a toll on his marriage. He thought about leaving Yancey Road for good. 
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