An overflow crowd crammed into the Clinton County Commissioners meeting room at the Clinton County Courthouse Monday morning to hear the latest chapter in the saga regarding wind farms as both EON and Responsible Harvest gave presentations to the Commissioners.
“We heard from both sides on the topic of wind,” said Commissioners President Josh Uitts. “This was the first time we heard from the wind company so that was particularly interesting to me. We need to get more information from them to see how much of a financial impact it can have for Clinton County.”
However, Uitts is doubtful about how much impact wind will be in the county.
“I know it’s made big impacts in other places,” said Uitts. “But quite honestly, I don’t think it will have the impact here that it has in other places because our assessed value is already much, much higher here than in comparable counties that have been used.”
Uitts added the Commissioners are keeping their moratorium in place they have had for more than a year simply because pending legislation is still continuing on the state level and the Commissioners are happy with their local ordinance.
Uitts also said both sides were cordial and kept the conversation congenial.
The Commissioners also received the bids on their new EMS building at the Clinton County Fairgrounds.
“We were super happy to see this come in under our budget which was around $1.2 to $1.4 million,” said Uitts. “We purposely designed the building so that it would decrease the bids. It’s going to be a conventionally designed building and that helped us.”
Uitts also said they would get going on the project as soon as they possibly can.
“You might see some dirt moving before the summer is over,” he said. “Maybe even by fair time.”