County eyes blinking turbines

By PHYLLIS ZORN

Staff writer

Red blinking lights on Sunflower Wind Farm turbines were debated Tuesday by county commissioners.

Commissioner Clarke Dirks said he didn’t have a copy of a conditional use permit granted to the wind farm but questioned whether the lighting systems on turbines were in compliance.

Sunflower was required by Federal Aviation Administration regulations to install lights that blinked when an aircraft was in the vicinity of the towers. The lights blink whether an aircraft is in the vicinity or not.

“Now we are a year and a half later, and the lights are still blinking,” Dirks said.

Planning director Sharon Omstead said Sunflower was dealing with a warranty issue on its lighting system. The lights are compliant with the FAA, she said.

Dirks countered that the wind farm might be compliant with the FAA, but not with the county. At various hearings before the permit was granted, the wind farm said the lights would not be blinking except when aircraft were near.

“What do you want us to do about this?” Omstead asked.

Dirks said the county could fine Sunflower for not being in compliance.

Omstead said she wanted to hear from an attorney about whether the wind farm was in compliance.

County counsel Brad Jantz said he wasn’t sure the situation rose to the level of being a compliance issue.

He said the county could spend several thousand dollars trying to find out where the wind farm was in compliance and, if the matter goes to court, the wind farm could end up making the county pay the wind farm’s legal costs.

Dirks doubted that the county was setting itself up for a lawsuit and said it would not be unreasonable to ask Sunflower to comply.

“They have generally installed what they were required to,” Omstead said. “They say it’s a warranty issue and they expect it to be resolved in several weeks.”

At the very least, Dirks said, the county needs to put Sunflower on notice that they are not in compliance.

Omstead said she would prefer to get a determination whether Sunflower was in default before sending out a notice.

Jantz said determination of compliance “tends to be a very specialized area of the law.”

County administrator Tina Spencer said the county’s agreement with the wind farm required only that the lighting system be installed.

Commission chairman Jonah Gehring suggested getting a Sunflower representative to talk about the situation with commissioners March 3.

Commissioner Kent Becker said it would be nice to have someone from Orsted come talk to the commission every year.

Charlotte Bellotte, a spokesman for Orsted, the company that owns Sunflower, did not immediately respond to a question from the newspaper seeking comment.

In other matters Tuesday, commissioners approved a conditional use permit for Scot and Tamara Koehn to build a cabin on their property as an extra house; heard that a new ambulance was expected to be delivered March 8; and were told that April 17 tentatively had been set at the date for the next county tax sale.