Wind project foe balks on making survey public

An opponent of the Neosho Ridge Wind energy project wants some information about the project kept out of the public record.

Neosho County Commissioners, with Counselor Seth Jones and County Attorney Linus Thuston present, talked Thursday evening about information provided in open meeting being public record. One member of the audience accused Apex, the wind project developer, of using that information to hound residents.

Over the past two weeks, opponent Dustie Elsworth has contacted nearly 200 people, including those outside of the area of the Neosho Ridge project, and claimed that a high majority favor increased setbacks, holding the developer Apex Clean Energy accountable, and providing a guarantee against property value decreases. But Elsworth declined to provide information to the commissioners about his survey because that would become public record. A representative of Apex expressed interest in getting copies of the survey, which prompted the hounding accusation. Thuston said those names and addresses are public record.