Public voices concerns over wind farm, Serenity House

Authored by Bob Adams on Feb 3, 2012

Concerns over a proposed wind farm and a halfway house in Decatur drew several citizens to the commissioners meeting Monday.
A Spanish company, Gamesa, has leased property in the northeastern part of the county, and has proposed building a wind test tower.
A few years back, the commissioners adopted a county ordinance concerning the building and maintaining of wind turbine towers. The ordinance was modeled after a similar ordinance that had been adopted by Benton County, which is the home to several of the wind turbine farms.
At that time, the main concern of the commissioners was the possible damage that could be done to county roads due to the heavy traffic and construction equipment.
There wasn't any public opposition at the time, but now that the wind farms could be a possibility in the county, there has been a lot of concern shown.
A group of citizens, led by Hilary Shifferly, Farley Thornesberry, Doug Hartman and Dave Hartman, asked the commissioners about changing some wording in the ordinance concerning the 1,000-foot setback and the amount of time allowed for repairs to the towers.
Attorney Adam Miller, and County Attorney Mark Burry addressed the group about how to handle their concerns and the procedures they need to go through to possibly get changes made to the ordinance. Commissioner Doug Bauman suggested that once they get all the changes they are looking at put together and addressed at one time, then they need to submit it to the county auditor so that it can be looked at prior to the first meeting.
County Plan Commission head Neal Ogg told the group it could take as long as six months to modify the ordinance and that the commissioners would have to make the recommendations.
The meeting began with the commissioners paying health claims of $60,427.15 and a report was presented from Maximus on the Central Services Cost Allocation Plan,
stating Maximus had billed the state, for Adams County, the amount of $26,888 for reimbursement for child support IV-D administration.
John August, Adams County EMA Director, presented the commissioners with two grants for signatures. The first grant was a 50 percent match grant for narrow banding of radios. Doug Bauman asked where the other 50 percent for the grant will be coming from and Mr. August said from other areas such as the Sheriffs Department – Sheriff Shane Rekeweg confirmed this statement.
This narrow banding of radios is something the state has mandated by law. They are hoping to have this done by the end of February.
Adams Memorial Hospital Attorney, Adam Miller presented three conflict of interest forms for the commissioners signatures from the three appointees to the Hospital Board made by the commissioners, Dr. Robert Judge, Russ Flueckiger and Dennis Bieberich.
Tim Barkey, Adams County Engineer, presented the grant agreement for the South Adams Trails project. They were approved also for a $5,000 line of credit with First Bank of Berne for five years. The grant amount for this project is $717,000. This grant is to rehabilitate bridges and also put together a section of the trail. Mr. Barkey said they will be interviewing engineers for this project within the next week.
Mark Mitchel, Adams County Highway Superintendent, reported that the quotes for the new pick-up truck would be awarded to Shifferly Dodge in the amount of $21,811. They were the lowest bidder.
Mitchel added that his department had received 44 tons of salt and are ready for any winter weather
The commissioners chose to renew their membership with the Decatur Chamber of Commerce and approved a request by IT Department head Landon Patterson for an additional appropriation from Cumulative Capital Fund in the amount of $39,000 for a fiber contractor with GIS.
Paula Zimmerman, a concerned taxpayer expressed her concerns on the possibility of the Serenity House. Ian Gilbert, Director of Community Corrections was in the meeting and spoke to Zimmerman about her concerns and misperceptions of the Serenity House.
Paula Zimmerman also expressed her concerns about the animal shelter and said she would like to see the shelter closer to a more populated area so people would use it more for adoption.

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