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Wednesday, July 3, 2013 Volume 119, Number 49 GoldthwaiteEagle.com 325-648-2244
Wildfire Forces Burn Ban & the Mullin Enterprise
Original Report Wednesday, June 26th on GoldthwaiteEagle.com.
By Steven Bridges Eagle Owner A large wildfire ripped through Mills County last Wednesday afternoon about eight miles southwest of Goldthwaite. Around 300-400 acres were burned by the wildfire. All four Mills County Fire Departments including Goldthwaite, Mullin, Priddy and Star were seen responding to the blaze with trucks, equipment and men. The County provided a maintainer. High winds, dry conditions and rugged hills made controlling the fire difficult. The blaze was reportedly caused by burning brush piles that got out of hand. Mills County officials re-instituted a burn ban in response to the blaze. At this time, a Mills County Fireworks Ban is NOT in place. However, extreme caution is urged when using fireworks in these dry conditions.
A volunteer fireman plows into the wildfire with a bulldozer southwest of Goldthwaite Wednesday afternoon. Steven Bridges Photo
LEFT: Ed Sanders and driver Kirby Moore decide how to attack the wildfire last Wednesday afternnon.
By Tammarrah Pledger Eagle Asst. Editor Local man Jim Schunke is seeing the Invenergy wind turbine go up in Mills County first hand. Schunke told The Eagle when the project first got underway, a large staging yard about three miles east on US 84 was established on the John Mann place for trucks and wind turbine parts. A concrete plant was put in place about four miles east on FM 572, he said, and a substation for receiving electricity from the wind turbines was set up on FM 572 east of the concrete plant. The first wind turbines worked were about 300 yards south of the substation, and then more west from there. After the wind turbine sites were determined, test holes were drilled at each one, Schunke said. A road was cleared off between the wind turbines and about six inches of caliche from a local pit was used to top the road. Schunke said Stuart Peters’ crew installed two gates (36 feet total) on each of the fences crossed. Later, an underground collection line will be installed 48 inches deep, connecting all the wind turbines to the substation. An overhead transmission line from the substation going west will eventually connect to the LCRA line about a half mile south of town on Hwy 183. A circular hole was dug at a site (about 60-by-8 feet), and after some smoothing at the bottom of the hole, a concrete pad about six inches thick
Local rancher James Schunke stands at the base of a Mills County wind turbine Monday morning. Once completed, the turbine will be at least 130 meters tall. was poured onto some rebar in a circle about 30 feet. After the concrete hardened, a cylinder about 10-feet tall and 10 feet in diameter, along with a rebar structure about five feet tall, was placed on the concrete pad. Many loads of concrete, totalling about 270 yards, were poured into this structure through a pivoting, sluice-like trough to fill up the rebar structure around the cylinder, Schunke said. Some of the rebar was up to 1.5 inches in diameter. When finished, about a 30-foot diameter, sloping five-foot high
cylinder of concrete remains with a cylinder of about five feet by 10-foot diameter protruding in the center. When completed, some of the wind turbines will be visible from Goldthwaite, Schunke said. The 86-turbine wind farm will primarily feature GE 1.7 MW wind turbines (83),” according to Alissa Krinsky, Director of Communications at Invenergy LLC. The project also will incorporate three GE 2.5 MW brilliant turbines, which feature short-term battery storage, Krinsky explained. Krinsky gave the following tur-
bine dimensions: Hub Height (The height above the ground that a horizontal axis wind turbine’s hub is located) 1.7 MW turbine: 262.5’ (80 m) 2.5 MW turbine: 279’ (85 m) Tip Height: (The total height of tower plus a blade in its highest vertical position) 1.7 MW turbine: 427’ (130 m) 2.5 MW turbine: 476’ (145 m) The Goldthwaite Wind Project (the farm’s formal name) will “generate enough clean, renewable energy to power more than 68,000 homes,” Krinsky said. The electric-
ity produced will be sold into the wholesale markets managed by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT). Invenergy owns and operates five other wind energy generation projects in Texas, she went on to say. Once Goldthwaite Wind commences full commercial operations, the company’s statewide wind portfolio will have a total capacity of more than 830 MW. Invenergy is the nation’s largest independent wind power generation company. The Wind Project is set to be completed by the end of 2013.
Sammy Smith Presented Distinguished Flying Cross By Tammarrah Pledger Eagle Asst. Editor To those Mills County residents of the World War II generation, he is “Sammy Smith.” That’s what Second Lt. Samuel Smith told The Eagle when he was contacted recently about receiving his Distinguished Flying Cross medal last year. Smith received his medal during a ceremony on Aug. 24, 2012, according to Wingspread magazine. The article written by Staff Sgt. Clinton Atkins says Smith was a B-17 Flying Fortress pilot during World War II. According to the article, Smith was assigned to the 360th Bombardment Squadron at Royal Air Force Moles-
worth, England, and flew 24 missions over Germany, one of which was the reason he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross. Smith reportedly landed a heavily damaged B-17 on his return from the bombing mission to Hopston, Germany, on March 1, 1945. In Atkins article he writes: “The B-17’s undercarriage and landing gear were damaged by flack from anti-aircraft gunfire. Somehow, Smith was able to make a hard right turn upon landing in order to clear the runway for approaching aircraft, saving the lives of his crew members and fellow bombers in the process.” Smith turned 89 on Sept. 11, 2012. “Before 2001, my birthday was
just a regular day,” Smith told The Eagle. Especially as a veteran, Smith certainly understands the significance of his birthday these days. Of course, when Smith was a young man, nearly all his peers were veterans. “Everybody I went to school with went to war,” he said. He remembers that two of his good friends from Mills County — Sam Saylor and Stoddard Gerald — also went into the “Air Corps,” and all three of them became pilots. During his acceptance speech last August, Smith made note that pilots, however, do not do their jobs alone. Speaking of his crew from World War II, Smith was quoted by Atkins as saying, “We flew 24 combat mis-
sions together, and I was fortunate in that I was able to bring the same crew back home after the war ended in Europe. I honor them also because us pilots, without the support of our crew and ground personnel, can’t do all the things that we do.” Smith, who now lives in Kerrville, spent most of his adult life in the Houston area, he said, after the war was over. But some of his fondest memories are of living right here in Mills County. Smith is a 1942 graduate of Goldthwaite High School. He remembers Goldthwaite as being “terrific ... the best place for young people growing up.” “We could go anywhere, and no
one bothered us,” Smith recalled. “If we got out of line, people felt like they could correct us. Then they’d call my mother and report on me, and she’d tan my bottom when I got home.” He remembers hunting and playing high school sports very fondly, Smith said. “It was just a neat place to grow up,” he said. Goldthwaite is also where Smith met his bride-to-be. Smith said he was visiting during a 30-day leave from the war, about three years after he graduated from high school when
See Sammy Smith, Page 1B