ALBANY — The New York State Board on Electric Generation Siting and the Environment (Siting Board) today announced it will hold a public statement hearing concerning an application filed by Cassadaga Wind LLC (Cassadaga), seeking authority to build and operate a 126 MW wind farm project in the Chautauqua County.

The project is proposed to be located in the Towns of Charlotte, Cherry Creek, Arkwright, and Stockton in Chautauqua County, and would interconnect to the state’s electrical grid along the Dunkirk-Moon transmission line. The project includes up to 58 wind turbines, associated collection lines (below grade and overhead), access roads, meteorological towers, operation and maintenance building, collection and point of interconnect substations, and related facilities.

An informational forum and a public statement hearing will be held before the three Examiners from the Siting Board, two Administrative Law Judges from the New York State Department of Public Service (Department), and one Administrative Law Judge from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. The information forum and public statement hearing will be held as follows:

Monday, January 9, 2017 Sinclairville Fire Department 30 Main Street, Sinclairville, NY 14782 Informational Forum                 6:00 PM

Public Statement Hearing          7:00 PM

At the informational forum, the examiners will provide an overview of the Siting Board’s certification process. Cassadaga will then present a brief summary of the proposed project and will have maps of the proposed project area available for viewing. Members of the public will then have an opportunity to pose questions about the process and the certificate application pending before the Siting Board.

At the hearing, any person wishing to provide a public statement must complete a request card, and the examiners will use the request cards to call each person who has requested to provide a statement. The examiners will continue the hearing until everyone wishing to speak has been heard or other reasonable arrangements have been made. A verbatim transcript of the hearing will be made for inclusion in the record of this case.

Disabled persons requiring special accommodations should call the Department of Public Service's Human Resources Management Office at (518) 474-2520 as soon as possible. TDD users may request a sign language interpreter by placing a call through the New York Relay Service at 711. Individuals with difficulty understanding or reading English are encouraged to call the Department at 1-800-342-3377 for free language assistance services regarding this notice.

Other Ways to Comment For those who cannot attend or prefer not to speak at a public statement hearing, there are several other ways to send comments to the Siting Board. Comments should refer to "Case 14-F-0490." Although comments will be accepted throughout the pendency of this proceeding, they are requested by March 7, 2017.

Internet or Mail: The public may enter comments directly into the case file from the Department of Public Service’s website, www.dps.ny.gov, by clicking on "Search" at the top of the page and then entering “14-F-0490” into the “Search by Case Number” field. In the open case, access the screen to enter comments by clicking on the "Post Comments" box at the top right of the page. Comments may also be submitted electronically to the Hon. Kathleen H. Burgess, Secretary, at secretary@dps.ny.gov, or by mail or delivery to Secretary Burgess at the New York State Department of Public Service, Three Empire State Plaza, Albany, New York 12223-1350. All written comments will become part of the record considered by the Department and can be read on the website by searching by the case number, as described above, and clicking on the “Public Comments” tab. Many libraries offer free Internet access.

Toll-Free Opinion Line: Individuals may choose to submit comments by calling the Department’s Opinion Line at 1-800-335-2120. This number is set up to take comments about pending cases from in-State callers, 24 hours a day. These comments are not transcribed verbatim, but a summary is provided to the Department.