A second public information session was held for the Arner Green Wind Farm on June 17th, 2008 at the Cottam united Church in Cottam.  The purpose of this information session was to provide an update and results from the environmental studies undertaken since the commencement of environmental screening. In total, about 35 people were in attendance including the Mayor and Deputy Mayor of the Town of Kingsville.

Several copies of the complete draft Environmental Impact Statement/ Environmental Screening Report (EIS/ESR) were provided for curious meeting attendees to read through.  As well, several of the reports that are included in the EIS/ESR appendices were provided, namely: the Avian Impact Assessment, Archaeology Stage 1, and the Shadow Flicker report.

Large display boards and posters on easels were used to display the following information:

• Preliminary site layout, including access roads, new cabling and overhead power lines, turbine and permanent anemometry mast location
• Updated photomontages, showing how the turbines would look in the landscape
• Project timeline and milestones
• Information on the Essex County policy and Official Plan Amendment (OPA) #1, which was being reviewed by the Ontario Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing for approval
• Noise map showing contours of different noise levels and noise limits mandated by the Ontario Ministry of the Environment
• Shadow Flicker map showing contours for the shadow limits mandated by Essex County in the OPA #1
• Summary of avian study surveys performed and the results
• Summary of the bat study surveys to be carried out in Fall, 2008
• Summary of the Archaeology Stage 1 findings
• Current project status and timeframe of future milestones and next steps.

The first public information session was held on September 20th, 2007 at the Cottam united Church in Cottam.  The purpose of this information session was to formally announce the project to the local community, and obtain as much feedback as possible. This feedback was obtained verbally and also through completion of a written questionnaire.

Large display boards and handouts were used to display the following information:

• Preliminary site layout, including access roads, turbines and housing buffers
• Preliminary photomontages, showing what the wind farm may look like
• General information on Wind Energy and and an explanation of a typical development process

A newsletter was also prepared for the attendees, which can be downloaded below: