The Grant County Council approved two agreements Wednesday to help E.ON Climate and Renewables progress in the local section of its Wildcat Wind Farm.
The council voted 6-1 to pass measures allowing the company to simultaneously complete Phases II and III of the wind farm, which is now set to be completed and operational by the end of 2014.
Under the agreement, the county will receive an additional $300,000 in economic development funding from E.ON for Phase III over the $1.2 million promised for Phase II.
E.ON Development Manager Andy Melka said that funding will be delivered after construction is started over four annual payments.
The proposal also includes decommissioning bonds that will pay for removal of completed turbines and other construction if E.ON goes out of business or pulls out of the project for any other reason.
E.ON must purchase those bonds before they will receive building permits, Melka said.
Several local residents expressed concerns about the project during Wednesday’s public hearing.
Swayzee resident John Needler spoke in general against the project, which he said should be paid for by E.ON without subsidies or tax abatements.
“It’s not good for the county,” he said of installing a wind farm. “I hate seeing this come into the community.”
Rural Marion resident Mike McDivitt questioned the impact the project could have on property values.
“I would hate to think we’d lose on our investment (in a home) because of this development that’s taking place,” he said.
Melka quoted two studies that found wind farms had no negative effect on property values beyond the period between proposal and installation.
Council President Jim McWhirt requested copies of both studies be made available to the public at the Grant County Auditor’s Office.
Other attendees asked whether the project should interfere with their scenery, including one resident who said she moved from Orange County, California, to Grant County for a rural lifestyle.
Melka said E.ON can’t address that issue, which he called a “personal preference.”
“There is no way for a governmental body to guarantee your view is not going to change,” said Councilman Michael Connor, R-4th District.
Melka also addressed concerns about endangering local wildlife and affecting human health. He said the former is being studied, though wind turbines affect birds and bats less than cats do, and no human health effect has been found.
Connor lashed out at the dissenters, saying he would place two wind turbines in his yard if it would prevent him from using any more fossil fuels.
“As a community, do we ever welcome things?” he said. “If we can’t approve this then we can approve nothing.”
Councilman Shane Middlesworth, R-At-large, cast the lone dissenting vote on each measure.
“I don’t want one in my backyard, so I voted no,” he said.
Middlesworth declined comment on why he doesn’t want a wind turbine in his backyard.
“We hope we’ve done what’s best for the community overall,” McWhirt said.
Melka said the $180 million Phase II would hopefully start in the third or fourth quarter of this year.
“We haven’t gotten the final investment decision from the company to proceed at this point, but we’re getting close to that point,” he said. The wind farm would aim to be operational in the late part of 2014.
In 2011, the Grant County Council approved a 10-year tax abatement for Phase II. The changed agreement phases in payment of property taxes on new equipment it puts in before Dec. 31, 2014. It does not alter the amount of taxes being abated.
Phase II comprises 100 megawatts of power and between 40 and 60 turbines, depending on their size and output. Eighty percent of this phase, including 35 to 50 turbines, will be erected in Grant County on farmland leased in Franklin, Green, Liberty and Sims townships.
The total projected cost is about $180 million. Melka said the investment in Grant County would be more or less proportional to the number of megawatts that will be produced here — probably about $150 million.
He said the project would comprise between 100 to 200 full-time equivalent construction jobs and six to eight permanent maintenance and operations jobs. E.ON will bid out for a general contracting company, which in Phase I was White Construction, Inc. in Clinton.
“Each project is treated differently, so we’ll be rebidding out that Phase II separately from Phase I,” Melka said.
He said the “vast majority” of the jobs would require labor through local unions, regardless of the general contractor.
E.ON also asked the Grant County Council to preliminarily approve declaring land for Phase III eligible for tax abatement.
Phase III is planned to be between 100 and 200 megawatts. Thirty percent of the turbines — 10 to 15 —will be built in Grant County in Sims Township north of Swayzee toward Converse and Greentown.
“We’re still in the process of leasing land,” Melka said. “Our goal with that project is also to start construction this year, probably not get very much construction, but get the majority of construction done in 2014.”