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A three-megawatt wind farm project in Baker County has secured funding and should be operational in November, according to Randy Joseph of . Joseph Millworks is a Baker County custom door and window manufacturing company, which will own and operate the project.

The Lime Wind project has been in the works since 2008, but it hit some road blocks in 2009 when Joseph could not secure enough funding to go forward with the project. Now the project has secured a $4.5 million loan from Seminole Financial Services of Belleair Bluffs, Fla., for construction financing, as well as $400,000 in loans from Northeast Oregon Business Development, Northeast Oregon Economic Development District, Morrow Development Corporation and Business Oregon.

In 2009, the project was granted a $500,000 USDA Renewable Energy for America Program grant.

The six-turbine wind farm will be the first in Baker County and the first to be built on public land administered by the Bureau of Land Management. It will be one of only two community-owned wind projects in Oregon, Joseph said. The project will involve six rebuilt wind turbines.

Joseph said construction on the project will begin in July, with turbines arriving in June.