Just returned from the Muskegon County Comissioners meeting where our county comissioners UNANIMOUSLY approved a proposed lease agreement for a wind farm in the 11,000 acre Muskegon waste water treatment facility. The commissioners and attendees were optimistic and excited to see this step in a 100 MW wind farm in Muskegon County move forward...enough to power over 20,000 homes, or about a third of the numer of households in Muskegon County.
The fellow I was sitting to, who actually asked not to be named, is from a local manufacturing company. His company is somehow involved in the process, and is happy that the contract includes a requirement for a certain percentage of locally manufactured components.
That's what I'm talking about.............
......jobs.
Not just jobs. But diversified jobs. Jobs in a new, non automobile related industry. See....while our leaders in Lansing seem singularly to blame tax code for Michigan's long term economic failure, the saner money would put that blame on an economy nearly singular focsued on a faltering domestic automobile manufacturing industry.
Economic diversification is the key. And that's what we're getting here. Is it going to be the one thing that saves us? No. Nothing will be. It will be A thing, ONE of the things, that helps us diversify into a more robust and buoyant economy.
The wind farm will be a significant source of revenue for the county, as well...and assuming our leaders don't scrap the Personal Property Tax without a replacement, it will also prove to be a healthy revenue source for local municiapalities.
We're moving forward here, in Muskegon County. We WANT to succeed. We WANT to embrace a hope and ambitious future. After decades of languishing, after getting beaten down from de-industrialization and factories fleeing the region for Mexico and China, Muskegon is preapared to do big things.
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