Grant County’s future role in an expanding wind farm remains unclear, but the County Board of Commissioners is working toward a moratorium until the future is clearer, Board President Mark Bardsley told concerned citizens Tuesday.
Commissioners passed an updated economic development agreement at their Dec. 17 meeting after spending months negotiating terms such as setbacks with E.ON Climate and Renewables at the request of the grassroots nonprofit organization Grant County Concerned Citizens. The county council decided not to approve the agreement, however, at their Dec. 18 meeting.
The expansion of E.ON’s Wildcat Wind Farm project had been expected to consist of 124 turbines in the area between Converse and Point Isabel, which would have encircled Swayzee. Because of the revised setbacks, however, the project would only have consisted of 60 towers in Grant County, meaning less money for the energy company, said E.ON. Assistant Development Manager Denise Jensen during the county council meeting.
If the agreement had been approved, construction would’ve started in December 2014 and finished in December 2015. Officials were unsure what would happen after the amended contract failed to pass, however, and concerned citizens questioned commissioners about the same uncertainty Tuesday.
Bardsley said the fate of the project is between the company and the council.
“Everything falls now to the council deciding what they’re going to do,” he said. “If something doesn’t happen, that falls on the council’s side.”
Commissioner John Lawson openly expressed his concern about what the council’s non-action means for county residents or the wind farm expansion.
“We’re afraid of a lot of things,” he said. “It’s hard to say what (E.ON) will do.”
The commissioners aren’t sitting idly, though. Bardsley said they’re currently working with the Grant County Area Planning department and their attorney, Kyle Persinger, on a moratorium that would put a hold on any wind farm activity until E.ON and the county council work out the contract.
Several attendees took to the podium Tuesday to urge the board to hurry.
“We understand all this. That’s why we need this moratorium in place now,” said John Needler, of Swayzee. “I don’t want to lose this in overtime.”