Bear Mountain retreat owners plea to be heard By Anne Adams • Staff Writer
MONTEREY - The one business on Allegheny Mountain located directly under the ridge where the project would be built is Bear Mountain Retreat. Owners Tom Brody and Patti Reum have for three years in this debate fought hard to voice their opinions about how the project would put their environmental education center and retreat out of business.
 | | For many, the crux of the wind debate revolves around property rights. Can one man's use of his land for his benefit adversely affect the opportunities of another property owner? Here, Tom Brody (right), owner of Bear Mountain Retreat argues that the McBrides (back left) do not have that right. |
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Tuesday, SCC attorneys Don Wells and Wayne Smith visited Bear Mountain around 8:30 a.m. The sky was clear and the view extended for miles. "They basically wanted to see the project area, especially the view scape," Reum said. "And there's no better way to see it than along Route 601 and on our ridge."
Reum said they stood on the lodge's front porch, and visited the cabins at the retreat, all of which face the ridge where 400-foot turbines could be constructed. "We talked about what we do here, our mission," Reum said. "Tom and I told them about the amount of birders and astronomers that come here, about noise and how it travels through the ridges and valleys, and about bird migration along the rivers and ridgelines."
As if to signal the visitors to the special wildlife Reum and Brody provide access to, a yellow-bellied sapsucker arrived at the lodge. "It obliged us by coming to the feeder while we were all there," Reum said. The first breeding record of that particular bird was recorded there at Bear Mountain two years ago, and was documented by the Virginia Society of Ornithology. "People came up here and photographed it and watched it. It was a very big deal," Reum explained.
The officials mainly came to get a sense of the site, she said. "We pointed out the anemometer still up there … and explained the turbines would be about four times that high, so they got a good perspective. And we pointed out Spruce Knob (in West Virginia), and told them about how this little area was the only really dark skies in the Eastern U.S., as the International Dark Sky Association pointed out … When we look out up here we don't see signs of civilization, and that's pretty rare with a 360-degree view. They wanted to see. They wanted the visual. I'm glad they came up, but I'd still like the SCC commissioners to come up, too."
Reum said she and Brody also were asked about Laurel Fork and the CREP program. Reum said as far as she could see, Laurel Fork was in pristine condition except for the section on McBride's property. "We also explained how we're at the head of three watersheds here, which is very unique."
"We don't hoard this," Reum added. "We told them how passionate we are about it, and how we enjoy sharing it with others."
Reum, who sat through the hearings, found it interesting that two of the three speakers in favor of the project Monday "weren't really addressing this particular site," she said. "(Their comments) about global warming didn't apply to our site. Everyone else, I felt, did an excellent job, even when they were asked questions. They didn't get flustered, they just said what they knew. I thought Rick Lambert's testimony was very telling, really powerful … The SCC's going to realize how many issues we're talking about here, the multitude of reasons (the project shouldn't be built). I think it's all on a bigger scale now; it's no longer a local issue. It's no longer an issue when you can say this is just a few people complaining about their back yard. The efforts of so many people on the whole East Coast have worked hard on this, so I feel (the SCC) can be a little more impartial and can judge this thing. I think they're hearing our side.
"There were so many people there I'd never heard before. It really makes my heart feel better. And they've really researched this and they care enough to have studied it, they're not apathetic. But who knows?"
Brody testified Tuesday on behalf of the couple; Reum said after the pressure they've been under the past three years, she didn't think she could speak without getting emotional. "And I'm embarrassed when I get emotional in front of people … I don't hold up well in public anymore."
Brody told the agency about Bear Mountain, and the business they had built there over the course of more than 20 years. The retreat and educational center is a significant tourism attraction in Highland, and in the state, he said. A 2003 Virginia visitors' study found Virginia was the No. 1 state visited out of 15, and that 38.8 percent of the tourists came to the mountains, followed by 26 percent to state and national parts.
He submitted documents supporting arguments about declining property values, noise and vibration disturbances to residents, fire dangers, and other potential effects, along with several rave reviews his business and Bear Mountain in general has received from tourists and educators.
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