Grant County officials unanimously approved a $175 million wind farm Tuesday night, signing development, road-use and decommissioning agreements with E.On Climate & Renewables.
Both sides said they will benefit from the deal.
E.On gets the go-ahead for its Wildcat Windfarm II project and a 10-year tax abatement, which would phase in property taxes on the wind turbines.
“Grant County proves itself again to be a very good business partner,” said Andy Melka, E.On’s development manager.
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The county eventually will see a significant boost to its assessable tax base in the western part of the county, explained council President Jim McWhirt, R-At-Large.
Plus, the energy company will pay the county $1.2 million over the next four years, which the Grant County Council and commissioners can spend on other economic development projects.
More immediately, E.On will give the county $65,000 within the next week to reimburse project-related legal and financial consultant fees.
During the construction phase, E.On will either upgrade or repair county roads used to bring the massive wind turbine parts onto 30 to 60 sites spread across about 8,000 acres of farmland leased by the company in Franklin, Green, Liberty and Sims townships.
The agreements also include certain protections for the county in case E.On goes belly-up or leaves the project half-finished.
The company has agreed to begin pouring concrete for the first foundation of the farm’s first wind turbine by Sept. 15, 2013. The construction phase, which could last six to 10 months, is expected to create 100 to 175 jobs, Melka said.
The company has said the project would employ between six and 10 people, with individual salaries from $30,000 to $95,000.
The council and commissioners met in an unusual joint session Tuesday to conduct a public hearing on the project and ink the Wildcat II deals with E.On.
The five people, including Assessor Tami Martin, who spoke at the public hearing, largely sought more details about different aspects of the project.
Martin raised the issue that other counties have questioned how wind turbines are assessed for property taxes. She was accompanied by Nexus Group attorney Marilyn Meighen, who provides legal advice to assessors.
E.On attorney Mary Soladay said recent changes to state law clarified exemptions for wind turbines.
“It’s only for wind turbines as part of their own home,” Soladay said. “We have a covenant that we will pay taxes regardless of what happens for the lifetime of the project.”
While county officials repeatedly described the wind farm as a $180 million investment, the energy company put the project at $175 million in the development agreement paperwork.
The final cost will depend on how many and what size wind turbines the company decides will be most economical for the wind speeds in Grant County, Melka said.
“It’s too early to nail down an exact cost,” he said.
Kevin Wimmer, who lives in Mill Township, was concerned about how far wind turbines are located from Marion Municipal Airport and whether the farm could expand without seeking county approval.
Melka said E.On worked with the Federal Aviation Administration to ensure the wind farm wouldn’t interfere with local air traffic, which partly determined the project’s boundaries.
Those boundaries are “fixed” in the abatement application, he said.
Councilman Dan Brock, D-2nd District, said he spoke with officials in White County about their experiences with a wind farm project there. He said they reported receiving the most complaints during construction.
“I could see absolutely nothing that would prevent us from approving this project,” Brock said.
McWhirt said he personally drove to the see the turbines in White and Benton counties and talk with those who lived near them.
“They are big,” he said. “They don’t look that big from the road.”
He was most concerned about the potential impact on people would live near a turbine and “wouldn’t get money from it.”
“There is some noise,” McWhirt reported. “It wasn’t bad and you had to be close.”
Melka said once the wind farm begins to deliver electricity to the grid, the landowners leasing their property to E.On will receive collectively $500,000 to $750,000 in “landowner royalty payments.”
Currently, anyone who has signed a lease option with E.On receives option rents that are significantly less than what they will be paid in royalties once the turbines are running, Melka said.
Grant County Tea Party activist Dan Love of Marion described himself as “the negative guy.”
“What do we get in Grant County out of this?” he asked.
E.On has previously said the electricity made by the wind farm won’t lower energy costs locally.
Love also wanted to know what contingency plans will protect the county if the company went out of business or abandoned the turbines
McWhirt said increasing the county’s tax base can help lower property tax rates because there is more value over which to spread the tax burden.
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