A group of locals are hoping to turn a wind turbine blade into a permanent public display in the District of Port Hardy, which would honour the wind industry in the region.
A damaged wind turbine blade from the Cape Scott Wind Farm, weighing roughly nine tonnes, was delivered to private property on Godspeed Road on Nov.2.
Port Hardy Rotarian Bill Milligan, who also owns Rock Pro, said requesting the blade was his initiative, along with his brother Rick and friend Lawrence O’Conner.
“We’ve done work for the windmill sites and we bugged the manager and said if you have a spare blade we’ll take one off you,” said Milligan, adding, “the manager of it said we happen to have one you can have.”
The windmill blade in question was bent and damaged beyond repair so, consequently, it needed to be replaced.
“I just think it would be something cool for people to see - It’s worth a lot and we got it for free,” said Milligan.
He added he hopes they can have it mounted and secured and then place it somewhere in town where it would be permanently displayed in the community.
“It will stay here until we can convince the town where to put it,” said Milligan, adding “it’s on private land for now and we have no agreement with the town about where it’s going to go, so we said we’ll just get it and then figure that part out later because it’s pretty cool.”
The blade was delivered by Totran Transportation Services Ltd., the Calgary based company that transports the blades.
Hardy Builders also donated a truck to help unload the blade.
David Cousins, site Manager at Cape Scott Wind Farm said it’s “early days” but if it goes forward it will be “something interesting for people to see.”
The Operational Services Committee, which is chaired by Coun. John Tidbury, will be the ones overseeing the project and its feasibility.