The Adair County Board of Supervisors discussed several matters during their meeting, Wednesday morning. Among them, was paving the road to the Greenfield Municipal Airport. Adair County Auditor Mindy Schaefer said the gravel road is owned by the county, and there had been talk about paving it, but that’s very expensive. She said they also talked about putting down dust control, and possibly including paving of the road under an Urban Renewal Plan associated with the new wind farm in Adair County. Schaefer said John Schildberg mentioned that there had been interest by a couple of groups who wanted to hold a motorcycle rally or car show at the airport, but once they find out it’s a gravel road, they lose interest.

In other business, Adair County Sheriff Jeff Vandewater recommended, and the Board approved, the hiring of Willie Tipling as a new Sheriff’s Deputy.Tipling will start August 1^st. Schaefer stressed he is an additional employee, not a replacement. They also passed a resolution for a Special Prosecutor Appointment. That person would only be used in the event County Attorney Clint Hight has a conflict of interest in handling a case, or is otherwise not available to handle a case or situation due to his case load. And, the Board discussed the possibility the District 4 DOT office in Atlantic may be moving to Council Bluffs in the future. Schaefer said the Board is opposed to the relocation because it will increase travel expenses for the County, when they need services provided by the Atlantic Office.

Another topic of discussion, was health and safety concerns with regard to two new wind farm projects set to be constructed in Adair County. Mid American Energy is constructing the Arbor Hill wind farm project which includes 125 wind turbines, and the Orient wind farm project, which includes 150 turbines with the option to add up to 100 more. Both are part of the company’s previously announced Wind XI project. MidAmerican officials say the 275 turbines, manufactured by Vestas Wind Systems, will add 550 megawatts of wind generation capacity for MidAmerican Energy customers – enough wind energy to power more than 230,000 average Iowa homes.

Adair County Supervisor Matt Wedemyer told KJAN News a man spoke before the Board, and brought along about 40 people with to listen. Wedemyer said MidAmerican is able to erect the wind farms because the County doesn’t have any zoning ordinances in the rural areas that would specify how tall, how many and other details about the wind turbines. He said the company is already moving dirt in preparation for turbine placement. He said also, there has never been an issue with any of previous three wind turbine placements in the County. 200-thousand acres have been leased for wind easements, he said, and they are financially beneficial for the land owner and the County. He said the County’s road use budget was at $3-million, but thanks to TIF revenue, the turbines help make that budget $15-million per year.

Wedemeyer could only speculate about what the concerns are people might have. He said he understands that some landowners and others may have concerns, but at this point, there’s nothing that can be done with the contracts between private landowners.