A proposed wind farm was the topic of a special Mahaska County Board meeting Friday afternoon (6/17).  Approximately 50 people attended the meeting, which featured a presentation by Liberty Power.  The utility is looking to put up wind turbines in Spring Creek, White Oak, Harrison and Cedar townships in the southeast corner of Mahaska County.  Olivia Neter with Liberty Power talks about the utility’s proposal.

“We’re looking at Mahaska County as a potential location for a 300 megawatt wind project.  We were here today to understand how the public feels about the project, understand how the supervisors feel, trying to understand the public opinion at this point for a potential project.”

Neter says the generated wind energy would be sent elsewhere and Liberty has no current plans to operate in Mahaska County.  There wasn’t a great deal of support for Liberty’s plan from those who attended the meeting.  Teri Rogers of Oskaloosa tells the No Coast Network why she is concerned.

“I read an article recently that there was a company that was fined $8 million because they said that they killed 150 eagles with their wind farms.  If the blades are in production, if they’re working, they’re going to continue to kill eagles and they’re also going to continue to kill bats.”

The Mahaska County Board took no action following the presentation.  If Liberty’s plan is eventually approved, Neter says work would start in 2025 with the goal of having the wind farm up and running in 2026.