December 14, 2018
Kansas

Nemaha and Brown County residents concerned over wind farms

Joey May | Hiawatha World | Dec 13, 2018 | www.hiawathaworldonline.com

Brown and Nemaha residents came together Wednesday night at the Fairview Community Center for an informative meeting about wind farms.

Information about wind farms was to be presented to local residents who had expressed concern over the impact of the proposed Soldier Creek Wind Farm, along with talk of other wind farms locating in the region.

This meeting came after last week’s Nemaha County Commission meeting, where the commissioners retained a Kansas City attorney to assist in negotiations with the Soldier Creek Wind Farm’s project developer.

This is according to the Seneca Courier-Tribune, who reported that James Neeld, of Sandberg Phoenix and von Gontard P.C. will make weekly reports at Monday commissioner meetings.

The county commissioners heard several concerns at their Dec. 3 meeting. Some concerns were that the project had more than doubled in size since it was first announced. There was also concern about protecting local land owners who didn’t want to participate in the project.

NextEra Energy’s initial proposal was for 60 square miles in an area that was sparsely populated south of Highway 9. The project has grown in size and now encompasses an area across most of the middle of Nemaha County.

The Tribune reported that residents were concerned their homes and land would lose value if located near where the windmills would be located. The turbines are 480-feet tall and standard distance to a home that isn’t participating is 1,400 feet.

NextEra officials told county commissioners they are close to acquiring the 100,000 acres necessary for the project and estimated land acquisition would be complete by the end of the year with engineering on the project getting underway by late January.

Companies have approached several Brown County land owners about acquiring land – which led to the informative meeting Wednesday night, led by Galen Ackerman and others.

URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2018/12/14/nemaha-and-brown-county-residents-concerned-over-wind-farms/