A wind energy development near Reading and Osage City has made a lot of strides the past several months.
RES Americas Development Manager Michael Hutson provided a short but extensive update to Lyon County commissioners on the 200-megawatt wind energy development.
Hutson tells KVOE News these are big milestones, but a lot of work is ahead before construction can begin late this year.
Based on the current timeline, the project could finish by the end of 2019. RES is also working on payment in lieu of tax agreements with Lyon and Osage counties with construction now in sight. Hutson says the announcement on the offtake agreement is likely not coming from RES. Instead, that will likely come from the power company buying the energy from the plant.
In other business, commissioners approved an adjustment for Road A between Roads 310 and 330 to allow for access to the road, which is considered a county line road despite jutting out east off the county line into Lyon County for most of that two-mile stretch. County Commissioner Dan Slater:
Slater says this is the best solution for a bad situation.
Separately, one-time Lyon County dispatcher Roxanne Van Gundy has been named to lead the county’s Emergency 911 Department. Van Gundy served as a dispatcher from 2005-2009 before moving to Alaska for several years. Van Gundy returned in 2014 to be closer to her mother and had split time between the Emporia Police Department and BLI Rentals before recently leading a specialized training course for dispatchers.
Van Gundy says her immediate goals are to let the public know more about the department’s vital role in saving lives, the work dispatchers do on a daily basis and the ways people can reach out to dispatch in cases of emergencies.
Van Gundy replaces Bill Duggan, who resigned early this year after leading the department since late 2014.
