Supervisors reach agreement with Stuart on Urban Renewal Area

The amendment to Ordinance 31A, which will cap the number of wind turbines that can be built in Adair County, was not drafted by last week's Oct. 9 Adair County Board of Supervisors meeting, however the Supervisors still had plenty of action on the docket to tackle.

Kristen Renslow, with the City of Stuart, and Chip Shultz, of Northland Finance, discussed Stuart's Urban Renewal Plan Amendment and the addition of county property to the Stuart Urban Renewal Area.

Questions the Supervisors had after Renslow visited with them at their Oct. 2 meeting were whether they could be assured that money generated from the program would only go toward projects in Adair County and whether they were creating a level playing field allowing Stuart to include 27 wind turbines in their urban renewal area when Orient only has 18 in its area.

Renslow came back to the Oct. 9 meeting with a revised plan that only includes 18 wind turbines and assures the Adair County Board of Supervisors that the money will only be used for projects in Adair County. The City of Stuart is evenly divided with half in Adair County and half in Guthrie County.

"That's the only reason we questioned the Stuart situation is that it's the county line. I think that as long as we know that Adair County dollars that are generated in Adair County are staying in Adair County, then I'm fine with that," said Matt Wedemeyer, Supervisors Chair. "Especially if it's on the south side, it's going to help Adair County."

The Supervisors accepted the resolution unanimously on the basis that Stuart would only use 80% of the money the program generates and would use that money for projects only in Adair County.

Clarification

After the discussions that were held Oct. 2 regarding capping wind energy development in the county, Adair County resident Colleen Oxley came to the Supervisors to clarify what the wording would be on a so-called cap. She was concerned that if someone wants to put up a private wind turbine on their property that they wouldn't be able to.

Wedemeyer assured Oxley that the Supervisors would discuss the matter with County Attorney Melissa Larson so that specific wording is in the ordinance that directly refers to farms of industrial wind turbines.

Conservation

Adair County Conservation Director Dominic Johnson reported that the Lake Orient electrical upgrade project he initially hoped would happen this fall will need to be pushed back to the spring due to a non-competitive bidding process.

Johnson stated he only received one bid and would prefer that the process be competitive so he and the Conservation Board can compare.

Bids will be let again for the project, which now may include water service to all of the camp sites, sometime early in 2020.

Johnson told the Supervisors that Lynette Olsen will be starting soon as the new administrative assistant for Conservation.

Conservation will be hosting a Halloween Hike event Oct. 26 in the early evening hours. The event, to be held at Lake Orient, will have a nighttime nature theme. Details of the event, as of last Wednesday, were still in the works.

Engineer

Adair County Engineer Nick Kauffman reported that Brad Cooper and Dustin Ford have been hired to the county's culvert crew.

Kauffman told the Supervisors that two new Volvo dump trucks are expected to be delivered to Adair County this week. One will be outfitted with equipment internally while another will be sent away to be outfitted. Kauffman expects the truck that will be outfitted here will be available for use by Thanksgiving while the other one will likely take until Christmas.