“I like them,” said Orville Williams. “They’ve been a very great economic boost for this area.” Williams has lived in Montezuma in Gray County since 1961. He was one of the first people to lease part of his land to the company now known as NextEra Energy. … Counties who let them go up get paid too. While wind farms are tax-exempt in Kansas, counties generally work out separate payment agreements with the energy companies to make up for some of the property tax losses. The Gray County Wind Farm, for instance, meant $5.3 million in payments to the county. And it’s just one of four in the county that, combined, meant $15 million since 2001 for a place that’s home to barely 6,000 people. … Meanwhile, in Montezuma, Mayor Grant Salmans said he’s heard there’s a company looking to bring more turbines to the county south of town. … “We hear somebody in a certain part of the state that doesn’t want one,” he said. “And we’re kind of like that doesn’t really make much sense to us.”
Source: KCUR News
