Agriculture
Developers not entirely surprised by lack of comments at wind-farm hearing
|
PAXTON — The two companies jointly developing the proposed Dogtown Wind Farm east of Paxton were not entirely surprised by the lack of public comments at Tuesday night’s public hearing, which lasted just 30 minutes.
K4 Wind Farm road-use agreement up for approval in April
|
KEMPTON — The race to build Ford County’s second wind farm is picking up speed.
Ashkum fuel supplier agrees to be purchased by Growmark
|
ASHKUM — An Ashkum-based fuel supplier has agreed to be purchased by the Bloomington-based Growmark regional cooperative.
Meier Oil Products and Manito Transit, a family-owned business since 1936, consists of a trucking company, a fuel terminal in Ashkum and bulk fuel facilities at Champaign, Sheldon, Kankakee and Pontiac.
Firm probing damage to wind turbine in Vermilion County
|
ARMSTRONG — The firm that operates the recently built California Ridge Wind Farm in Vermilion and Champaign counties said it is looking into how a wind turbine’s blade broke on Tuesday night.
PBL to get $1 million boost from wind farm
|
PAXTON — The Paxton-Buckley-Loda school district should see a $1 million spike in revenue next year, while homeowners in the district should see a savings on their property tax bills next summer, thanks to the construction of a wind farm near Paxton.
Bids for farm leases to be accepted at auction
|
PAXTON — Bids will be accepted for the lease of three farms owned by Ford County during a public auction scheduled for Oct. 31.
The current “cash rent” lease for the three farms expires Nov. 30. The farms are up for a two-year lease, running from Dec. 1, 2012, through Nov. 30, 2014.
The auction will be held at 1:30 p.m. in the large courtroom at the Ford County Courthouse.
Wind industry banking on tax credit's renewal
|
NORMAL — If Congress decides to extend a federal production tax credit to give wind-farm developers an incentive to start building again, there might be a “big rush” in 2013 to take advantage of it before it expires again, an Illinois State University economist said.
But whether that would mean more wind farms being built in Illinois any time soon remains to be seen.
Corn yields vary widely in area
|
Area corn yields vary widely, according to grain elevator officials, with many crops suffering through low totals as a result of this summer’s prolongued drought.
Birkey’s acquires dealership in Henry
|
RANTOUL — Birkey’s Farm Store has acquired an agricultural equipment dealership in north central Illinois, bringing the company’s total number of stores to 12.
Birkey’s, a Case IH dealer, signed an agreement with brothers Bill Reed, Bob Reed and Jerry Read to acquire Read Bros. Inc. in Henry, a town between Peoria and La Salle-Peru.
Economist says so far, employment created by wind farms is mostly temporary
By DAVID MERCER
Associated Press writer
CHAMPAIGN — While wind-power generation has created more than 19,000 short-term construction jobs in Illinois, the state has only about 800 permanent jobs at wind farms and is mostly missing out on potentially far more permanent jobs on the manufacturing side, according to a study released July 17.
