Local businessman installs, and will take down, turbine
AMARILLO -- Here in the Panhandle, we are used to seeing wind turbines fanning the horizon, but how about seeing one in downtown Amarillo?
The turbine is on the corner of 2nd and Polk, in front of H&H Plumbing. The owner, Bobby Hollabaugh, spent almost $30,000 to get it installed, and up and running says he cannot plug it in to the City's electricity grid, or get a building permit for it because it's not UL certified.
"To begin with its supposed to be grid connected it's not UL approved," Hollabaugh said, "the city they won't give me a building permit to get it approved so I have to get the UL in Washington D.C. to get a field tester out here to certify it." Hollabaugh said that would be an additional $5,000 cost to him.
So, Hollabaugh is putting the turbine up for sale.
We tried to call the City's Zoning Enforcement officals today to check on the zoning standards, but our phone calls were not returned.
