After years of debate, county officials have approved plans for a wind farm in the Iowa Great Lakes region.
The Dickinson County Board of Adjustment unanimously voted for the Red Rock Wind Energy Farm after hearing three days of testimony last week, including a final hearing that lasted four hours.
In 2023, the board turned down permits for the project. The new proposal included fewer wind turbines and farther setback distances in eastern Dickinson County. The initiative now also requires a radar-based system that automatically turns on warning lights on the towers whenever a plane is in the vicinity.
Aaron Janssen, who owns a wedding venue outside of Terrill, Iowa, opposes the plan, saying, “We just feel everyone got the shaft on this deal.”
Janssen says property owners will likely file an appeal.
The lead developer with Red Rock Wind says hundreds of people supported the project, which he says will bring long-term economic opportunities with the 67 turbines.
*In other news, Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley says funding for public media may get caught up in wider efforts to cut the federal budget.
The Trump administration has proposed asking congress to rescind about $9 billion in previously approved funding to public media, as well as USAID and state department programs.
Grassley says he isn’t looking to cut any specific programs, but he wouldn’t vote against a broad resolution that includes those cuts.
“It’s part of a $9 billion recission. And I think if I were to vote against a $9 billion dollar recission, the constituents of Iowa would say to me, ‘Are you a fiscal conservative or aren’t you?’ ” Grassley stated.
Also last week, President Trump issued an executive order barring the Corporation for Public Broadcasting from directing funding to NPR and PBS. Those organizations are the largest providers of programming for public media stations.
Grassley spoke on that topic as part of Monday’s River to River program on Iowa Public Media.
*Additionally, disability advocates are concerned that proposed cuts by the Trump administration will eliminate their organizations.
A leaked budget proposal shows Health and Human Services plans to no longer fund several programs that help the vulnerable.
This includes the Iowa Developmental Disabilities Council, where Brooke Lovelace is the executive director.
“It's really scary that that might all go away, that all of that advocacy work that we've been doing in the last 50 years, we might take, you know, several decades steps back by eliminating our programs,” Lovelace said.
If the cuts go through Congress, Lovelace says two other groups, Disability Rights of Iowa and the University Center for Excellence, would also be impacted.
The council is also warning about potential cuts in Medicaid funding, which Lovelace says would harm Iowans with disabilities and their families.
