The Custer County Board of Supervisors met Tuesday morning in the courthouse with a variety of items on the agenda ahead of them.
Lindsay Mouw and Alex Chandler from Invenergy came before the board to give an update on the Prairie Hill Wind Project, which would place a number of wind turbines on land south of Mason City and to the west toward Highway 183. The project has been in the works in some capacity for the better part of a decade.
Invenergy acquired the project via sale from American Electric Power (AEP) in 2022, and since have been conducting site surveys and completing landowner agreements. A conditional use permit is still valid for the project, which would need to start this year.
After calling for 90 turbines at one time, the 200 megawatt project will now require 45 towers thanks to improvements in efficiency. 46,000 acres are under lease, however it was stated they would not all be used.
District 7 Supervisor Sara Parliament raised the concern of heavy equipment and parts traveling on Mason City’s main street, the most obvious direct route to the project site.
“We need to leave the roads in as good or better condition than we found them, and that is a tricky aspect because the road, you know, it’s probably a four or five out of ten right now and when you bring a lot of traffic over that that will beat it up and how do you get it back to a four or five? You usually don’t, you end up just fixing it, and like you said put hot mix over it. So those are some of the details that we do probably need to nail down here.. or do we exclude it and we have a long way around? Those are some of the things we need to come to a conclusion on and have a map put together and an agreement put together,” Chandler explained.
Hammering out an agreement regarding roads was stated as priority number one as discussion closed for the project to move forward. Once completed, the project was stated to have a possible $700,000 per year tax benefit to the county.
Road armor coating bid awarded
The county’s road armor coating bid for 2025 projects was awarded to Sta-Bilt Construction. Rates per square yard range from 63 cents for 0 to 1.5 continuous miles down to 46 cents for 9.1 to 15 continuous miles. Between 28 and 35 miles are on the project list for the county this year.
Eakes Office Solutions presents phone system possibility
Representatives from Eakes Office Solutions came before the board regarding possible phone upgrade solutions. Ten other counties in the area saw savings between $750 and $1,800 per month after switching to the “new, modernized, non-analog” system. The supervisors all agreed that a no-strings-attached analysis wouldn’t hurt, and encouraged Eakes to set up a time to complete one with the County Clerk.
Laptop capability upgrade
The supervisors agreed upon an upgrade to county laptops that would simplify electronic document sharing. The cost would go from $6 a month per laptop to $12.50 a month per laptop.
Other meeting business from Tuesday
- Recycling manager Kelly Flynn presented the quarterly recycling report. He stated that he hopes rates go up soon, but it doesn’t appear that they will.
- Permissive exemptions recommendations for approval or denial were given by the Custer County Assessor. Exemptions for groups including churches, the Lions Club, foundations, historical societies, senior centers, economic development groups, American Legions and more were approved as requested. A small number were denied.
- Tax list corrections included approvals for Melham Medical Center and a couple homesteads. The ongoing discussion regarding the 2023 City of Broken Bow exemption for the Tomahawk Park campground was also resolved. Supervisor Barry Fox stated he had met with the city and a conclusion had been reached regarding the city’s charged rates at the campground.
Tuesday’s meeting adjourned at 10:18 AM. The next Board of Supervisors meeting will be March 25.
