L&T Publisher Earl Watt
After an initial love affair with wind farms, Kansas has started to turn sour as the promise of a cash boom for local units of government didn’t pan out, and some people where they are located found them to be an annoyance.
Still, there are benefits with adding electrical generation to the grid, even if none of that electricity is used locally.
I support exports, whether that is the beef and grains we produce locally or energy. So I don’t have an issue with electricity being exported, either.
I am neither pro wind nor anti wind. I am for learning more about wind and also its impact on the local community.
The only way to do that is to have public discussions before any special use permits are approved.
Monday at 7 p.m. in the Seward County Commission Chamber, the public will have a chance to voice their concerns, for or against, on wind farms in Seward County, and it is vital people attend.
The majority of the Seward County Commission have shown they give little credence to public input. But it is still a vital part of the process to show up and voice your concerns.
Some believe that property owners should be able to do whatever they want on their property without consideration to others, and therefore it is simply up to a landowner on whether or not they want to approve a wind farm.
But that same standard was not used on corporate hog farming back in the 1990s. In fact, corporate hog farming was rejected by a public vote.
As wind farming has made its way to Kansas, many counties are restricting or prohibiting the addition of wind farms because of their negative impact on property values and other negative impacts including noise, sleep disruption and aesthetic declines.
I happen to think wind farms look cool, but I also don’t live by one or have to sleep with the blinking lights and noise.
Several groups in Kansas have organized to prevent wind farms in their counties. This has led to a division where some want the renewable energy but don’t want it near their homes or towns. In other words, it’s okay as long as it is not in my back yard.
There is also a consideration of tax dollars, something Seward County desperately wants.
But the problem is these payments in lieu of taxes are usually one-time hits, and the consequences of wind farms, or benefits, will be long term.
Sure, some farmers may do well with wind farms on their property. The same could be said for farmers who would have been involved with corporate hog farming.
But the county has been restrictive of other county investments that could have increased values.
For example, there was a housing development that was going to place homes on smaller plots than 80 acres. They were going to build $500,000 homes on 20 acre plots. That would have been $1 million of taxable property on an 80-acre piece of land. But the county turned that down.
Why is it that some people can decide what happens on their property while others can not?
In the city limits of Liberal a few years ago, there were neighbors concerned about a crematorium being built close to their homes. While the business owner had every right to build, the public had a hand in the decision.
In all these cases, the public was given a voice.
Will that happen with wind farms, or will the public once again be ignored by the Seward County Commission?
Is this a decision that should be left to five people?
Wind will either be a plus or a minus, but whatever is decided, it will have a longstanding impact on the entire county.
Why would such an impactful decision be made without public discussion?
Some will tell you that these discussions have been ongoing for years.
It’s true that there has been a lot of talk about wind, but it has never escalated to the point of actually affecting the permit process to allow it to happen.
There was plenty of discussion about hog farming, too.
Kansas has also learned a great deal since the onset of wind, and all of the new data needs to be a part of the public discussion.
Even the State of Kansas has changed policies on wind after initially given lifetime tax abatements. That’s right, not taxes ever.
With one commissioner already planning a move out of Seward County, any vote to allow or deny permits without a public vote will be seen as another rejection of public input.
Will wind provide millions in tax revenue or be seen as another boondoggle? We simply do not know enough about it to make an informed decision.
Is a vote binding or just advisory? It doesn’t matter. Some will tell you that votes are not needed or allowed. That’s simply not true. An advisory vote is not only allowed, it is wise.
The decision still comes down to the commissioners, and it is critical that the public participate with the process. Sharing your views about wind farms is critical to any case that can be made on whether or not the commission adequately considered public input prior to making any decisions. If any steps are taken to limit public input, that could be considered should any challenges to their decision be made.
Believing the commission will take into consideration the views of the public is a long shot, but it is critical that long-term decisions like these have been properly discussed in the public from this moment forward. Any prior discussions are not a replacement for the current proposal.
The public hearing takes place at 7 p.m. Monday in the Seward County Administration Building.
If history of this commission is any indication, this may be the only chance to have any input on the issue. It is highly unlikely they will go out of their way to do anything more than the legally required minimum.
