Commissioner grills wind farm officials
Staff writer
Officials from Sunflower Wind faced stiff questioning from county commissioner Clarke Dirks
Plant manager Jase Sherwood and project manager Danny Sears-Greer told commissioners about repairing and replacing the blades, but Dirks had extensive questions.
He wanted to know how much the blade and debris weighed and debris removed from the site so he could determine how much of the blades original material had not been disposed of.
“I saw the blade hit the ground, and it just disintegrated,” Dirks said.
Wind farm officials replied that it didn’t vaporize and that soil where it hit the ground also was removed for recycling and disposal.
Dirks then questioned why Orsted, the wind farm owner, that did not pay for county vehicles off-duty personnel used to provide security when the company worked on the blade.
He was told Sheriff Jeff Soyez had told Orsted to pay personnel, but hadn’t suggested paying to rent their squad cars.
Dirks accused Orsted of admitting it had polluted the county and had been for more than two years because of blinking lights on the turbines and challenged whether authorized roads had been used to bring a blade and equipment to the wind farm.
He said Orsted had violated its conditional use permit and threatened to revoke it.
Both Sherwood and Sears-Greer denied violating the CUP.
“I agree to disagree,” Dirks said.
Orsted officials said they were continuing to work with vendors to get new technology that turns off turbine lights except to work.
The commission also discussed a planned building at Peabody.
Chairman Jonah Gehring thought the commission was going to vote on approving architecture drawings the county paid for. He said the county need for a planned building at Peabody
“I am getting questions from the architect on what we are doing, County Administrator Tina Spencer said.
Commissioners discussed doing the project in phases.
“Your costs will go up when you piecemeal it,” Dirks said. “We can get there, even if we do a little bit at a time.”
Commissioner Mike Beneke said he had received a rough estimate that it would cost $195,000 to build a portion of the building designed for road and bridge3 employees to use while maintain equipment with $55,000 for utilities.
A portion of the building designed for road and bridge employees a portion to use while maintaining equipment.
“It’s something we can afford,” he said.
Facilities for a proposed new Peabody ambulance station would be left unfinished or would be added as a lean-to.
Spencer proposed delaying action until Oct. 20.
Commissioners also discussed purchasing a new semi tractor trailer which if connected to a trailer it could be used to haul gravel.
Beneke said the new semi, would cost about $45,000.
Spencer said paying for the truck would empty the special equipment fund, which would be OK if the county did not have emergencies for equipment. It might require that a new dump truck be obtained as a lease rather than an outright purchase,
Commissioner Kent Becker wanted to know if the county could offset the cost with sale of equipment.
“It all comes down to what you want to do with the dump truck,” said Vice Chair Commissioner Dave Crofoot.
Gehring said he was concerned with constant spending.
“We have to cut the tap off very quickly,” he said.
Commissioners approved paying $45,000 for the semi tractor trailer.