Owners said ‘no’ to wind or solar farm on their ranch

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Shannon Hill and her husband, Wade Hill, own Five Hills Ranch in the Cisco community about three miles north of US 62 between Berryville and Green Forest. They have beautiful views on their large cattle ranch and intend to keep it that way.

Shannon Hill said a representative from Enel North America came to her door recently, introduced himself as Ed Frazier, and told her he wanted to talk about solar and wind farms.

“I said, ‘I’m not interested’,” Hill said. “When asked why, I said that we raise Black Angus beef, and he went on to say there are benefits to solar farms and wind farms for cattle. I said, ‘I’m not interested.’ He said, ‘Don’t you want the extra money?’ He already knew how much land we owned, which is kind of scary. He asked if I was sure. I made him look at the views of the mountains all around us and said, ‘Why would I want to put a windmill or a solar farm on this property? And there is no sense in you knocking on my neighbors’ doors either because no one wants those here. We all feel the same way.’”

Wade Hill said his concern is how many other “green energy” companies are going to try to move into Carroll County with their wind turbines?