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An old problem returned to the Antelope County commissioners’ table when the leaders gathered for the first 2020 meeting at the courthouse in Neligh last week.

Judy Wilcox, accompanied by her husband, Dave Wilcox, was there to discuss wind turbine “ice sling policy.” County zoning administrator Liz Doerr also addressed the leaders regarding a Christmas Day icing event.

Doerr described procedures followed, after she received notice from Commission chair Dean Smith and Wilcox. She referenced a text message from Smith, indicating numerous turbines had been throwing ice all day and that he had called the sheriff’s office, but they didn’t know the protocol.

“I had a house full of company Christmas, so just to speed things up, I just directly called in to the ICC number, that’s a number in Chicago that myself and the sheriff’s office and Luke Hinkle, (an Invenergy operations manager), we’re the three people (who) can call into that number. It’s kind of a protected number, so not all of the dispatchers at the sheriff’s office have it,” she said. “I didn’t even know for sure if it was one project, both of them, or what we were talking about… then I had a series of text messages from Judy (Wilcox) and I did get some more specifics from her, I did call in a second time after her first text message, to let them know that I knew some of it was coming from the Prairie Breeze but I still wasn’t entirely sure, and then when she gave me some specific turbine numbers, I called in again, which I don’t remember which one it was, one of them was already shut down, they had other turbines that were already shut down earlier in the day…they also told me that the sheriff’s office had called too…“I followed up with ICC, 223 was already shut down and I had them place 222 into load shutdown. From my viewpoint the controls are working as planned.”

She said the wind company is following the terms of its conditional use permit.

Wilcox questioned the shutdowns.

“I would like to know when tower 222 was shut down, 223 was shut down when we came back past it about 45 minutes after I called in,” she said. “I would like to know when 222 was shut down, I have not seen it shut down.”

She asked Doerr to request shutdown information on all towers that were stopped during the icing event.

“My issue with this WIOM (winter ice operation mode) deal that shuts them down, it doesn’t do it until after they’ve thrown ice off and get out of balance,” Wilcox added as she passed around photographs of the ice chunks that landed on a county road.

She also read icing-event recommendations from GE, the turbine manufacturer, which she said had been presented to county commissioners and zoning officials in the past.

“They say very clearly in here, … ‘the risk of an ice storm must be taken into account both during project planning and wind farm operation.’ It says they should be set a minimum of 1.5 (times) the height of rotor, back from the road,” she said. “You are allowing an automatic shutdown of the turbine which is after they have thrown ice on the road, and not until somebody drives through where they’ve been throwing ice. I just don’t know why we can’t be proactive and follow GE’s recommendation that says they should be remotely shut off when ice accumulation is starting.

“In this day and age, they know when ice is going to accumulate - when there is a mist in the air and the temperature drops to 32 and below. Also, for their own operators’ safety when they’re icing, it says they should be remotely shut down and to place the rotor on the opposite side of the tower door, parking vehicles a distance of at least 100 meters from the tower. A hundred meters is 328 feet. I am driving past towers that are 176 feet from the right-of-way, and their own personnel aren’t supposed to get within 328 feet, plus the rotor supposed to be turned around…GE said for them to be 1.5 that height back for a reason and I think the only way we are going to get away from this is if you say anything that is less than 1.5 of their total height away from the road is to be shut down anytime icy conditions are forecast. They don’t have to rely on a WIOM, they have personnel there 24 hours…and after I call in it is close to an hour before one of the two I’m reporting is shut down.”

She said there had been three icing events during the past year and reminded the commissioners of statements made by Invenergy officials after shutdown parameters were changed on turbines after icing issues last winter.

“I am not going out looking for the ice falling down, but anything that’s within 328 feet of the road should automatically be shut down if there’s icing, so I request you look into tightening your restrictions. They have no penalty if they don’t shut down. There is no penalty or fine if they throw ice on the road. And they are knowingly doing it,” she continued. “It’s a safety issue, they haven’t hit us yet but it’s a matter of time before they hit somebody.”

Commissioner Charlie Henery asked county attorney Joe Abler if he could address assessing penalties.

Abler replied, “Not today.”

“It’s something we need to look into, I felt that way in February and March, and we are revisiting it now,” Smith said.

Doerr offered to follow up with Abler, but said she doesn’t have authority to impose penalties, that her job in cases where permits are violated is to get them compliant. The zoning administrator said she felt both she and the sheriff’s staff did what was required.

“I did not come down here,” she said. “I had a house full of company, that’s where I drew the line, and I did spend way more time than I should of on this on that day. But I took care of it, I called it in then I followed up after.”

Wilcox asked, “On safety? So, I shouldn’t call you on a holiday? Public safety - I’m not important enough for you to make one phone call?”

Doerr answered she had to make numerous calls because she didn’t initially have specific information.

“I understand it was a problem…but when I made the first call, I thought that will take care of it, they will take it from there, and then we had numerous text messages after that, including links to web pages that had nothing to do with this icing,” she said. “It took a bunch of my time; my family was getting upset with me.”

Sheriff Bob Moore explained that the dispatcher on duty Christmas Day had only been on the job four months, was still in training and unaware the sheriff’s office was a call center for wind turbine problems. Moore said the dispatcher informed another staff member and Hinkle was called with the tower numbers within five minutes.

Smith said he didn’t provide specific tower numbers Wilcox had given him in the message he sent to Doerr, because he had witnessed two Upstream towers throwing ice as well.

“They know what tower numbers are built along the county roads, I would envision that those are on a computer screen, they could look at them and know if they are running if there’s an icing event. If the safety mechanism didn’t shut them down, it’s as easy as them looking at a computer screen and saying, ‘hey, we’ve got icing, we’re going to shut down,’” he said. “I want to know when they say they shut down because I know of the two that never did shut down.”

Commissioner Carolyn Pedersen asked for a map showing tower locations, by number, for reference if calls are received.

Doerr also showed the county home Page, which can be found at antelopecounty.nebraska.gov, on the meeting room screen. She said phone numbers for reporting turbine issues are listed at the bottom, including hers, the sheriff’s office and Invenergy’s Neligh office.

“As is stated up there (on the media screen), you are the point person, you are the first one listed, that’s the process you should go through, you call the first person listed, would you not?” Smith asked. “If that’s a problem, we need to reverse that list, because there’s no need in calling the Neligh office so that might as well be taken off of there, so we just need to put the sheriff’s number first and yours second?”

Doerr said the other numbers are listed as alternates in cases when she is not available.

Two appointments were made to the Antelope County Board of Adjustments. Former alternate Neil Williby was appointed to a three-year term as active board member, to replace Randy Hughes, who asked not to be reappointed. The term will expire Dec. 31, 2022. Corey Curtis was appointed to fill the unexpired alternate position previously held by Williby, set to expire Dec. 31, 2021. Motions authorizing both appointments carried unanimously.

Payne reported receipt of a $75.16 check from A1 Janitorial. She explained that the company had been sent a shipment of supplies in 2015, after offering free samples and had billed the county about $99.

“It was ‘supposedly’ free samples,” Payne said. “However, they ended up billing us and we paid it. A1 was ordered by the courts to reimburse the businesses that this practice was exercised against.”

Payne turned another matter, regarding an IRS “conversation audit” over to Krebs to explain to her peers.

“The IRS is performing, basically a correspondence audit on the original issuance of the jail bonds in, I believe 2013, basically verifying the tax-exempt status of the original jail bond issued in 2013,” Krebs said.

The information was requested “over the holiday,” but auditor extended the deadline “at least through the month of January,” according to Krebs.

“There is an entire list of information they are looking at, it’s just going to be a matter of getting that compiled different things as far as the bond, all the minutes, the bond issuance from the bonding company. So, because this is the original 2013 issuance, we have already paid it off and refinanced these. It’s going to take a little bit of time to get this information put together. But, if it’s okay with the board, I guess I will work with Lisa on getting that finalized here as much as we can over the course of the month, and we will report back when we have that compiled.”

Before thanking Krebs for assisting Payne with the matter, Smith asked if Krebs saw a problem handling the matter as a board member, rather engaging than a third party?

“The audit itself is addressed to the board, so when I talked to the auditor, she said any member of the board can help handle this for the time being,” Krebs answered. “It’s just simply compiling the information that they have requested. I don’t think there’s anything in there, at this point in time, would require a third party to get involved, unless it’s our bonding agent, because there’s some information in there we may have to request from them.”

A contract approved by the commissioners at a previous meeting was readdressed at the request of assessor Kelly Mueller. Due to a typographical omission, the state tax administrator had disapproved the contract for valuation assessment. A motion to sign the corrected document was approved unanimously.

An administrative plat for a lot split was approved for Charles and Shelly Bode of Elgin. Doerr said the application met all requirements and was a simple lot split to separate the building site from the rest of the ground.

The commissioners voted unanimously to close two segments of roadway in Elm Township, as petitioned by Andy Frey, despite opposition lodged during a public hearing last fall.

The supervisors voted in September to close the west half-mile segment of 848 Road, lying between sections 28 and 21, but the remaining half-mile segment of 848, between sections 29 and 20, and a half-mile segment of 847 Road, between 531 and 532 avenues, had initially been tabled to allow a survey to be completed, then was tabled again in December to allow new commissioners Regina Krebs and Pedersen time to review transcripts of the public hearing.

Brian McDonald, county highway superintendent, recommended closing the roads. After some confusion was cleared up by Payne reading from the September meeting minutes, the leaders voted unanimously to direct McDonald to draw up resolutions for adoption at the next meeting. The rights-of-way will revert to the property owners.

McDonald said, “If the road is closed, they (landowners Andy Frey and Jeremy Martinsen) each have 33 feet at the section (line), if they want to maintain a drive, they’ve got it. It’s not a road that I see the county’s going to upgrade.”

McDonald also asked the commissioners to pass a motion to authorize Payne to advertise for bids for the Tilden North and Tilden South bridge projects. He estimates cost of the two projects that will replace damaged bridges with triple box culverts, at $325,000. The project has been approved for Nebraska Department of Transportation funding, with the county’s share estimated at $160,000.

McDonald said, as part of the funding proposal, the project includes removal of an unused bridge on the Holt County line.

When asked by Henery if the county had Holt County’s approval and if there would be a share of demo costs, McDonald said he had discussed it with Gary Connot, Holt County’s road superintendent, but didn’t plan to ask the neighbor to share the estimated $1,000 cost.

“We’re getting funding from DOT, it was one of the things we used to sweeten the deal,” he said.

Smith opined Antelope County will gain more than what it will cost to take down the bridge. The leaders approved unanimously.

The superintendent provided input on data received regarding a potential road-haul agreement with TC Energy, for the Keystone pipeline project. He said he had reviewed a copy of video mapping done in October of county roads projected for a haul route.

“It’s really quality video,” he said. “I really don’t see any issues accepting what they are presenting. If we want to have something readdressed at a later date, I’d say you can. As far as documentation of what’s there, it’s done and it’s done well…just know what it is, it’s a snapshot it time.”

Robert Latimer and Dan Forbes with TC Energy appeared, accompanied by their project security officer.

Latimer said, “We have plans to begin construction on our project in 2020, in various different segments, I can’t exactly explain what that is in Antelope County, but we will be doing some form of construction, whether that’s preconstruction work or hauling. We intend to build a camp, an RV site in Plainview, just outside the county line here in Pierce County. So, there will be activity in Nebraska in 2020 and it’s appropriate that we pull together these agreements and get you folks onside with that…I would say that the most amount of attention has been the road-haul agreement, appropriately so. We have approximately 111 miles of gravel road that we now believe are appropriate for use, 32 miles of paved county road, and then some state highway miles in there as well. We have taken your feedback… that ‘this is a really lot of roads,’ and we’ve narrowed that scope in.”

Forbes said, based on input from Antelope County officials, most “non-maintained” roads had been eliminated.

Latimer added that language suggested by Casey Dittrich, Antelope County road superintendent, had been included in the edited document and said the company was proposing a bond amount in the neighborhood of $15 million, but it had not yet been added to the proposed agreement, pending Dittrich’s “buyin.”

“In the state of Nebraska, we’ve put in place haul-road agreements with all the counties along the route of the pipeline, with the exception of Boyd, Holt, and I think we are going to get there with you folks in due time…Some of the agreements are a lot simpler, some are more comprehensive, like this one and that’s fine. Some counties have more experience with large energy projects,” he said.

Smith told Latimer, the Jan. 14 meeting agenda was already, “beyond a full plate,” He also suggested the commissioners consider waiting until Holt County’s road agreement was completed, telling his peers that Holt County had hired Omaha attorney David Domina to negotiate its road-haul agreement for the pipeline.

“That (doesn’t) mean we can’t agree to a road-haul agreement,” Henery said.

Smith said TC Energy has to come through Holt County before doing anything in Antelope County.

“Constructing a pipeline is a large deal,” Latimer said. “We’re looking to get all our permits in place in an expedient manner to prepare for construction…If you guys want to wait for Holt County to get stuff in place, I respect that.”

The commissioners also approved two access permits on Dittrich’s recommendation, for Austin Mitchell, on 841 Avenue in Elgin Township, and for Josh Schindler, on 841 in Stanton Township.