WAYNE – It was a light agenda during the Wayne County Board Commissioners regularly scheduled meeting which allowed time for a northeast Nebraska wind project to be discussed.
From the Wayne County Courthouse courtroom Tuesday morning, commissioners heard from project manager for Lincoln Clean Energy Charlie Smith. The 230 megawatt (MW) Plum Creek Project will be located in southwest Wayne County, featuring 82 GE turbines which will use FAA approved radar lights that only light up when an airplane is nearby. Of the 120 leases and easements acquired, they’ll cover roughly 20,000 acres.
Smith, a native of Omaha, started working for the company in 2013 and recently took over the Plum Creek Project last year. The group has been studying wind speeds in the area, working U.S. Fish and Wildlife, Nebraska Game and Parks, conducting environmental studies as well as hosting landowner and neighbor meetings. Smith added their goal is to keep the turbines at least 1,800-feet away from non-participating landowners and around 1,600-feet for participating landowners.
Construction is scheduled to take over later this summer of 2019 before turbines will start to arrive in late January 2020. Lincoln Clean Energy would like to be operational between April – June of 2020. The company is still looking to secure a lay-down yard and will be working with NextEra Wind Energy’s Sholes Project by building a switch-yard for NPPD and hook up to their transmission line.
Roughly 7-10 full-time jobs will be available once the project is complete as this will be the first Nebraska project for Lincoln Clean Energy. Lincoln Clean Energy has been developing wind projects since 2012 and currently have three wind farms in Texas that they own/operate and are currently working on a fourth. Charlie Smith and Wayne County highway superintendent Mark Casey were scheduled to address road/bridge items and more Tuesday afternoon.
Commissioners also accepted six bids for a tri-axle dump truck in Jim Rabe’s District (#3). Three bids for MAC trucks came from RDO Truck Centers in Norfolk while another three bids for Freightliners came from Truck Center Companies in Norfolk. Jim will look over all the bids and compare the trade-in values.
Along with the dump truck bids being tabled until the next meeting, Casey scheduled a pair of bid openings for projects on March 5 at 9:45 a.m.
The next regularly scheduled Wayne County Board of Commissioners meeting will be Tuesday, March 5 starting at 9 a.m.