Supervisors hear frustration with wind farm project

MONTROSE – A two-hour town hall on proposed solar and wind ordinances stirred up some surprises from about 40 people in attendance.
The meeting was called last week by Lee County Supervisor Chairman Tom Schulz, who led the meeting along with Supervisor Garry Seyb, who ushered in the ordinances as chairman in 2024.
“We have to have something,” Seyb told the group. “Right now we have nothing, and the reason these people are looking at us is because we have nothing.”
Seyb said there are four or five other projects in the queue for Lee County.
“If one of these projects doesn’t get through, there’s another right behind them. They are coming," he said.
The ordinances put some regulations in place for the energy companies who want to locate large generation utility projects in the county. In attendance were officials from Cordelia Power/Tesanska Energy. Agents for that company are currently working in Lee County to secure lease agreements for about 70 windmills in the county. The windmills would be more than 600 feet tall including the windblades. The nacelles, which have the power generation equipment, are at about 400 feet.
“The postcard is changing,” Seyb said. “When you look out now, you’ll see windmills.”
But Seyb stopped short of saying the windmills shouldn’t be in the county. As residents in attendance clamored for the board of supervisors to protect landowners, Seyb and Schulz said there’s only so much the county can do, and the ordinances, which are posted on the Lee County website at www.leecounty.org for residents to view, are a way at least to hold the companies accountable.
Lee County resident Ray Menke, who’s been visible at most public meetings where energy projects including pipelines have been discussed, may have had the most poignant advice of the night.
“You keep asking for this board to protect you. Protect yourself. Get an attorney and work with them through the whole process.” Menke said after thanking the board for trying to do something to protect landowners.
At that point an official with Cordelio, a Canadian company, caught everyone by surprise.
“We’ll pay for it,” he said.
One attendee said they didn’t want a Cordelio attorney and the official replied they could pick their own attorney.
“No, you pick your own attorney, and we’ll pay for it. We want you to be comfortable with what you are hearing.”

Seyb said, according to what he’s hearing, the wind farm project had less than 50% of the lease agreements needed for the project. The supervisor said they wouldn’t be able to use eminent domain to secure land for the windmills.
Several attendees, including Andrew Johnson of West Point, countered saying the transmission lines could be subject to eminent domain proceedings with the Iowa Utilities Commission.
“If they run lines from one windmill to the next underground, they may be able to use eminent domain to secure that land,” Johnson said.
He also said the county should secure further setbacks in the ordinance.
Ted Stein of rural Fort Madison also thanked the board for starting the process, but said they have a way to go in the language. Stein told the board to not be so specific in its language, that it didn’t capture all technology that could be on the way.
The ordinances are being drawn up to require certain financial commitments from energy companies including surety bonds, decommissioning funding, and road-use agreements, among other things. The ordinances also address setbacks and transferability of the regulations to other future owners of the projects.
Schulz said he’s hoping that residents will read the ordinance and provide written comment on the language of the ordinances in the next month or so.
“We may have to have more meetings like this, but I’m hoping that we can get some written responses from residents that we can consider,” he said.
The county has been working on the ordinance for about four months and have structured it around an ordinance in place in Des Moines County. Southeast Iowa Regional Planning Commission helped draft that ordinance and has been involved in the Lee County work, as well.
Fort Madison Fire Lt. Chad Hannum pushed the board on adding language to assist firefighters in dealing with emergencies associated with the wind towers.
“Those nacelles are 400 feet in the air and we have to go up there on a medical call, we’re trained to do that in Fort Madison, but none of these other volunteer departments in the area are. That’s a lot of training that needs done and it’s not just a one-time training. There needs to be some language in there addressing those needs,” he said after the meeting.
Hannum told the group that if one of the towers were to catch on fire, which has happened, firefighters would likely let it burn and protect surrounding property.
“Yeah, we’re gonna let that burn. That’s 400 feet in the air.”
Seyb said most of the planned windmills would be located north of Hwy. 2 on the south and from Denmark to the east all the way to the county line to the west.
The ordinances require three readings and three approvals by supervisors before they can become part of the county code. Schulz said he doesn’t know when the ordinances would be placed on the agenda, but the county needs to keep moving toward that.