The Greene County board of adjustment will meet Tuesday, Nov. 24, at 8:30 am in the second floor board room to consider a pair of conditional use permits. SC Holdings is seeking the permit for repowering at the Rippey wind farm. Simple Mining is seeking a conditional use permit for construction of a data center/bitcoin mining operation on 15 acres between Jefferson and Scranton.
County zoning officer Chuck Wenthold told the county supervisors of the upcoming meeting at the supervisors’ Nov. 9 meeting.
County engineer Wade Weiss said he and county attorney Thomas Laehn had worked on the road use agreement for the Rippey Wind repowering last week. “We’re coming up with a very great template,” Weiss said. “We’re trying to get something we can utilize in the future for other projects, not just wind projects, but maybe there will be something else that will come up that we can utilize that same road use agreement.”
He said they referenced a road use agreement developed by the state for use with carbon dioxide pipelines that allows the county to require a company to pay an outside licensed professional engineer to serve as the county’s representative during construction.
Laehn said the county would be able to appoint the professional, with the company – Rippey Wind in this case – covering the cost. “The county engineer would be the one ultimately speaking on the county’s behalf,” Laehn said. “On a day-to-day basis, the person actually out inspecting the work would be the county representative appointed by the board.”
Weiss said the agreement originated with MidAmerican. “Rippey Wind put their proposed changes in, and we took it from there,” Weiss said.
Another major change is that rough terrain cranes will not be able to use the roads at will. They can be utilized on site but must be hauled with an appropriate oversize permit from location to location.
During his monthly update, Jefferson city administrator Scott Peterson said work on DD55, which is roughly north of the county fairgrounds, is progressing. He said cleaning the drainage tiles has been successful in decreasing flooding and groundwater backups in basements, but that a lot more cleaning needs to be done. Peterson also told the supervisors of the city council’s commitment of $1.25 million for the expansion of the Jefferson public library.
