GREC could cut line for call center

ALACHUA – Only 14 complaints came into the call center for the Gainesville Renewable Energy Center (GREC) biomass plant in the last month, causing local officials to suggest shutting it down.

Since the biomass plant went online last August, residents of the Turkey Creek neighborhood in Alachua have been vocal about issues with noise from the plant. A high volume of calls were coming in to the Alachua County Sheriff’s Office, the Alachua Police Department and the Gainesville Police Department, prompting a panel of local leaders to establish the call center, paid for by Gainesville Regional Utilities (GRU).

Since the center was set up in November, it has received about 250 calls in total. It cost GRU about $3,000 to establish, according to the organization.

The reduction in complaints over the last couple of months could be due to noise-dampening panels GREC installed in December in the facility’s stacks.

GRU sent out a press release last week, announcing local government agencies recommend shutting down the call center. Concerns related to the biomass plant should be reported directly to GREC, according to GRU.

In the weeks and months after the biomass plant went online, Alachua City Commission meetings were filled with citizens complaining about the noise. At the Sept. 23 meeting, around three dozen people came to voice concerns.

The commission sent out letters to several officials, including county commissioners, city commissioners, the county manager, state legislators and U.S. senators.

Alachua City Commissioner Robert Wilford, who lives in Turkey Creek, said the noise situation has dramatically improved since December.

“The noise has not been bad at all in the last two months,” he said.

His wife, Dianne, agreed, saying the noise-dampening panels helped.

“We have noticed here in our particular part of Turkey Creek where that has helped tremendously,” she said.

Some residents closer to the plant still complain, though, she said.

Robert Wilford had been outspoken about the biomass plant since the issues arose, but he did so as a citizen, not as a commissioner, he clarified.

During the height of the controversy, he wrote an email to several local officials expressing his dissatisfaction.

“I realize that you are being bombarded with a plethora of complaints regarding GREC's operations. Being brutally candid, based on the manner in which GREC is failing to address the many valid concerns being expressed by residents of the Turkey Creek, Brooke Pointe and Staghorn subdivisions, residents of the Town of Hague, residents of the manufactured home subdivision located across from the Turkey Creek subdivision, and also some residents of non-incorporated Alachua County who live close to the center, you and the management of GREC have ignominiously earned the wrath of the many individuals and families who are being continually and adversely impacted by your center's questionable operations and the obvious lack of regard for our individual rights,” he wrote.

Not all the complaints directed to the biomass plant were about noise. Several complained about dust pollution.

Employees of the nearby Alachua County Public Works Department compound complained about irritated eyes, noses and throats, as well as breathing issues.

People are still talking about the dust particulates, Robert Wilford said. Wilford has chronic bronchitis, a condition he worried would be exacerbated by the dust, he said in an earlier interview with Alachua County Today.  

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