Page County, MidAmerican Energy officials continue discussions on Shenandoah Hills Wind Project

(Clarinda) — Page County and MidAmerican Energy officials continue to address concerns regarding a wind turbine project in the southwest corner of the county.

Meeting in regular session late Tuesday afternoon, the Page County Board of Supervisors received its weekly update from MidAmerican Energy representatives regarding the Shenandoah Hills Wind Project, which includes the construction of 51 turbines between Fremont and Page counties south of Shenandoah. At last week’s meeting, the majority of the discussion surrounded some of the construction crews utilizing 280th Street, which was initially not part of the road use agreement between the developer and the county. This week, MidAmerican Energy Spokesperson John Huff says that while that road has since been added to the agreement, crews should be done utilizing 280th.

“On that topic, we’re already done with any use of that road,” said Huff. “So I think that’s probably a relief for you to hear and it’s a relief for me to share. So we’re already beginning the process of turning that back over.”

Supervisor Todd Maher noted that per the road use agreement, MidAmerican should have provided a written notice to County Engineer JD King before using the new haul route. Maher says the agreement also indicates that the project developer is responsible for granular placement on road soft spots due to the construction traffic or weather, as deemed necessary by the county engineer.

“I think that’s something, too, that has been talked about where we might have the gravel roads are getting worn down on some of the higher traffic areas,” said Maher. “We need to make sure we’re trying to mitigate some of that damage to those roads.”

Maher also pointed to a clause that stipulates that “non-typical wear, such as pavement failure” on hard-surface roads would need to be repaired by the contractor or developer “immediately upon notice by the county engineer.” County Engineer JD King says J52 is one of the hard-surface roads that has already received some repairs and will likely need more.

”J52 has been a problem and we brought in a contractor who did extensive repair on certain couple of places and there’s some failure development again, further east of where we did patching,” said King. “But there’s also a economy of scale. I don’t want to bring a contractor in for a couple of patches that are five-foot wide. So there’s going to be some poor pavement for a while until it warrants to bring in the contractors again.”

King says they have sent a reimbursement request to MidAmerican Energy for the patchwork done along J52. Maher also inquired about water and magnesium chloride applications to roads around residences for dust control. MidAmerican Energy’s Kelsey Ballard says they do the applications on a “case by case” basis as to whether they use both water and magnesium chloride.

“We have been doing magnesium chloride applications throughout the season,” said Ballard. “Some of the time when there is rain coming, we may choose to do water instead of a mag chloride application, or likewise, if we just anticipate to use a road for maybe two days, the water trucks make more sense. But, we continue to evaluate that on a case-by-case basis.”

Huff also noted that a few more turbines had been constructed since their last update, with 38 turbines now erected between Fremont and Page counties.

In other business, the board

—Approved the purchase of new mowing equipment.

—Approved seeking proposals on the county farm lease, with bids due by December 8th for consideration at the board’s December 9th meeting.

—Received an update from Samuels Group on the Page County Jail project.

—Review proposals for sidewalks at both the courthouse and annex building and a new parking lot at the annex building.

—Discussed appointments to the county zoning board of adjustment.