Public hearings this summer have ratcheted up discussions. A third will come next week.

Advocates for Springfield President Harry Levine attended the previous hearings to recommend changes to a draft environmental impact statement.

The meetings have stayed polite and under control despite wind energy being a topic of controversy, Levine said.

"There are a lot of emotional issues here," he said.

Otsego 2000 Executive Director Martha Frey said the group isn't against wind power, but she believes a statewide moratorium on windmill projects should be put into place until guidelines can be established and studies can be done on how windmills affect scenic, historic and cultural resources.

There also should be a cumulative investigation on how windmill projects will affect the region, Frey said.

The draft environmental impact statement for the project doesn't cover everything and needs to address more concerns, Frey said.

She said she is encouraging the public to get more involved.

Sue Brander of Advocates for Stark said she also is concerned with possible health problems that could result from the windmills.

At the forefront of her complaints is the possibility of damages from the decibel levels of the windmills.

The windmills are scheduled to operate at 50 decibels or lower, but that doesn't count damaging low-frequency sounds that actually increase the decibel level to about 60, Brander said.

The World Health Organization standard for the upper limit of sound is 30 decibels, she said.

The state Department of Environmental Conservation rule is five decibels above ambient sound, Brander said.

An engineer measured ambient sound as 20 to 25 decibels on her property, she said.

The environmental statement is currently in its public comment period.

Public hearings took place June 29 and July 12.

In response to requests from Otsego 2000 and Advocates for Stark, a third public hearing has been added because the first hearing took place while much of the county was dealing with flood problems, Brander said.

The hearing takes place at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, July 27, at the Owen D. Young Central School.

The Jordanville windmills would be up and turning in the fall of 2007, said Eric Blank, executive vice president of Community Energy, the company behind the project.

Blank said he believes a vast majority of the residents in the towns very much want wind energy facilities. The company wants to work with groups such as Otsego 2000 to make sure there are no complaints about visual obstructions from Cooperstown or other areas, he said.

"We think it's a great project and should be built," Blank said.