Scouting America does not have a monopoly on the motto “be prepared.” Specifically, the Marshall County Board of Supervisors and department heads are working to be prepared.
They want to be prepared should a battery-collection, solar, or wind-turbine facility be proposed in the county. Part of the process is education and relevant information.
On Tuesday, Tod Bowman of the Center for Rural Affairs in Nevada and Luke Seaberg of Iowa State University Extension in Ames presented a two-hour program at the Marshall County Courthouse in which they convincingly said the need for electricity will only increase in the future.
They explained that electricity is created from a number of sources – such as coal, gas or nuclear-fired power plants. Solar panels and wind turbines also generate electricity.
Accordingly, the two also presented firm evidence on how cities, towns and counties can successfully draft ordinances which benefit developers, property owners and protect public interests while providing electricity.
They were invited by Tyler Kelley, county sanitarian and zoning administrator – himself a department head. Kelley said he had seen a presentation from Bowman and was impressed.
Bowman is a former two-term state senator from Maquoketa. Kelley also wanted the expertise and resources offered by Iowa State University.
Kelley said Marshall County currently has a “bare bones” wind farm ordinance in place. “We want to be prepared and have an ordinance in place which allows a project to generate or store electricity. There are two wind farms in Marshall County now – one is near Laurel and the second in Vienna township.
Part of the Vienna project includes turbines in neighboring Tama County. Both are owned by Mid-America Energy of Des Moines, according to the company’s website.
The company worked with county governments first and next negotiated individual leases with property owners and installed the turbines in 2013.
Wind turbine and other electricity-generating projects have proven to be a long-term boon for local government tax bases as well as to property owners who lease their land. Many leases are for 50-years. They also provide high-paying construction jobs.
Like many new business development projects, wind farms have met resistance. Opponents have cited damage to the environment, injuries and fatalities to birds and the removal of cropland from production as key reasons among others.
“At least one-third of Iowa counties have restrictive wind turbine ordinances,” said Seaburg.
However, Iowa has proven to be a prime location for wind turbines specifically, ranking second nationally with more than 6,300 individual turbines, according to Bowman and Seaburg.
“Adair County has 506 turbines – which is approximately eight percent of the state’s total,” said Bowman. “They are followed by O’Brien County with 318, Hancock County with 241, Worth County 231 and Pocahontas County with 215.”
Texas is first with more than 18,000 individual turbines. Oklahoma places third with more than 5,500 turbines.
“There was a lot of good information presented by Bowman and Seaburg,” said Kelley. “I cannot say when the supervisors will meet to begin work on drafting a new ordinance.”
Also in attendance at the informational session were a number of area residents. For more information about wind turbine locations in Iowa and the United States, visit www.usgs.gov. For additional information, visit the Center for Rural Affairs website at www.cfra.org and ISU Extension at www.extension.iastate.edu.